The Friday spelling test comes back with 4 out of 10 again, and it's natural to wonder: is my child behind?
Sometimes the answer is yes. Often it's "not really - but the way they're practising isn't working". Here's how to tell the difference, what's actually expected in each year, and what helps.
What's expected in each year
In England, the National Curriculum's English Appendix 1 sets out the words and spelling rules children are taught each year.
| Year | Age | What they're expected to spell |
|---|---|---|
| Reception | 4-5 | Simple words by their sounds, and some common tricky words (the, was, said) - no statutory list |
| Year 1 | 5-6 | About 45 common exception words (said, they, friend, school) and words using Phase 5 phonics |
| Year 2 | 6-7 | About 64 more common exception words (because, people, beautiful), plus suffixes like -ment, -ness and -ful |
| Years 3 & 4 | 7-9 | About 100 statutory words (separate, disappear, occasion) and prefixes, suffixes and homophones |
| Years 5 & 6 | 9-11 | About 100 more statutory words (accommodate, necessary, rhythm) and rules like -cious/-tious and -able/-ible |
Each list is meant to be secure by the end of the stage. A Year 3 child who can't yet spell separate in October isn't behind - they're in the middle of learning it.
A bad week, or genuinely struggling?
Some signs point to normal learning:
- They're making phonetically sensible mistakes - becos for because, peopal for people. They're hearing the sounds and choosing a plausible spelling; they just haven't learned the unusual one yet.
- They get words right on the test but wrong later. That's very common, and it's a practice problem: words crammed the night before fade within days.
Other signs are worth a conversation with the school:
- Mistakes that don't match the sounds of the word, or letters in the wrong order, over and over.
- Spelling that hasn't moved in a term despite regular practice.
- Reading that is also slow or effortful, or a big gap between what they can say and what they can write.
- Your child becoming anxious or avoiding writing altogether.
None of these on its own means dyslexia or any other difficulty. But if several apply, talk to the class teacher or the school SENCO. You know your child; they can see how your child compares with the class and arrange an assessment if it's needed.
What actually helps
Little and often. Five to ten minutes a day beats one long session before the test. Spelling research consistently finds that spacing practice out over days works better than cramming.
Bring missed words back. The words that matter most are the ones your child got wrong - a few days later, again. Moving straight on to next week's list is how the same words end up wrong in Year 6.
Write, don't only type. The test is handwritten, and so is almost everything else at school. Some of the practice should be too.
Look for the pattern, not just the word. If your child writes nashun, stashun and mixshun, that's one lesson (the -tion ending), not three wrong words. (More on spelling patterns.)
Keep it calm. Children who feel they're "bad at spelling" practise less. Short, successful sessions build confidence faster than long, frustrating ones.
Where Spelling.Live can help
Spelling.Live was built around exactly those five things. It practises your child's own school list (type it in or photograph it), brings missed words back on a spaced schedule, lets them write words by hand on screen or on paper, and names the pattern behind each mistake so you can see what's really going on. If your child has dyslexia or other SEND, there are per-child support settings like the OpenDyslexic font, colour overlays and slower speech.
A Skills Check is a quick way to see where your child actually is against their year's words - and it's free to start.