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Families now use Spelling.Live in the UK, Australia, the United States and India. Each country teaches spelling differently and sets out "what a child should be able to spell by when" differently - in some places there is no single answer at all.
We've looked closely at all four. This post explains what each country actually has, why the Curriculum report in Spelling.Live follows England's National Curriculum, and what that means if your child goes to school somewhere else.
England: the most detailed map there is
The National Curriculum in England has a dedicated spelling appendix, English Appendix 1. It sets out, stage by stage, exactly which spelling rules children should learn:
- Year 1 - sounds and letters, adding -s and -es, the prefix un-, and the first common exception words such as said and once.
- Year 2 - patterns such as -dge, kn- and wr-, adding endings to words ending in -y, contractions and homophones.
- Years 3 and 4 - prefixes and suffixes, -tion and -sion, words from other languages, the possessive apostrophe with plurals.
- Years 5 and 6 - -cious and -tious, -ible and -able, silent letters, the i before e rule and harder homophones.
It also publishes word lists: common exception words for Years 1 and 2, and around 100 statutory words each for Years 3-4 and 5-6. Its spelling content is what the end-of-Year 6 grammar, punctuation and spelling test is based on.
No other English-speaking curriculum we've found is as specific about spelling. That is the main reason we chose it.
Australia: a close match
Australia has one national curriculum, the Australian Curriculum, now in version 9. Within English, each year level from Foundation to Year 6 describes what children should know about how words are spelled:
- phonic knowledge - letter-sound relationships, vowel sounds, more complex letter combinations
- morphemes - base words, prefixes and suffixes
- spelling generalisations and where words come from
- high-frequency words and homophones
By the end of Year 3, for example, children are expected to spell longer words using what they know about sounds and word parts, as well as common high-frequency words.
That is the same territory England's Appendix 1 covers, in a similar order. The rules underneath are the same too: Australian English uses the same spellings as British English, so colour, travelling and organise are spelled the same way in both. Where the two differ is detail. Australia describes the kind of knowledge expected each year rather than naming every rule, and publishes no required word list.
Two practical differences matter for parents:
- Year names are shifted by one. Australian children start Foundation at around five, about a year after children in England start Reception. So an Australian Year 3 child is roughly the same age as a child in Year 4 in England.
- New South Wales has its own syllabus. NSW teaches its own English K-10 syllabus, which covers spelling in a similar way but with its own structure and codes.
So if your child is at school in Australia, England's spelling progression is a close guide to what they're learning. It's not word-for-word the same, but the patterns and the order largely match.
The United States: it depends on the state
There is no national spelling curriculum in the US. Most states adopted the Common Core State Standards in the early 2010s, and many have since revised or renamed them. Others, such as Texas and Florida, have always had their own.
Where Common Core is used, spelling sits in two places: the phonics standards for kindergarten to 3rd grade, and the "conventions of standard English" language standards. These start fairly specific. In 2nd grade children "generalize learned spelling patterns when writing words", with examples like cage and badge. By 4th and 5th grade the standard is simply to "spell grade-appropriate words correctly, consulting references as needed".
That leaves the real detail - which words, which rules, in which week - to individual districts, schools and the spelling programs they buy. Many use the Dolch or Fry high-frequency word lists in the early grades. Two American children in the same grade can be working on quite different spelling.
US spelling is also different, of course. Spelling.Live recognises American spellings for children set to US English, so color and favorite are never marked wrong. There's more on that in Your child's spelling list, spelled the way their school spells it, and the main differences are listed on our UK vs US spelling page.
India: set by the school board, through textbooks
In India, the English taught depends on the school's board - CBSE, ICSE or a state board - and much of it comes through the board's set textbooks rather than a separate spelling progression. English is often a second language at school, and spelling is taught alongside reading and grammar rather than as its own year-by-year sequence.
Many private and international schools in India also follow international programmes such as Cambridge Primary. As in Australia, Indian English uses British spellings.
How the year groups line up
If your child goes to school outside England, this table shows roughly which England year matches their class. The ages are approximate and cut-off dates vary.
| Age | England | Australia | United States | India |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5-6 | Year 1 | Foundation | Kindergarten | UKG |
| 6-7 | Year 2 | Year 1 | 1st grade | Class 1 |
| 7-8 | Year 3 | Year 2 | 2nd grade | Class 2 |
| 8-9 | Year 4 | Year 3 | 3rd grade | Class 3 |
| 9-10 | Year 5 | Year 4 | 4th grade | Class 4 |
| 10-11 | Year 6 | Year 5 | 5th grade | Class 5 |
Why we follow one curriculum, not four
We could build a separate curriculum report for every country. We've decided not to, for three reasons.
England's is the most detailed. A progress report is only as good as the map it's measured against. Appendix 1 names specific rules, which is what lets Spelling.Live say something precise, like "secure on -tion, nearly there on adding -ful to words ending in -y", rather than "spelling is developing".
Most of the patterns are the same everywhere. Silent letters, -tion, doubling before -ing, the y that becomes i, homophones - English spelling rules don't change at the border. A child who masters the -cious ending in Brisbane has mastered the same rule as a child in Birmingham.
One curriculum done well is better than four done thinly. In the US there is no single standard to map to, and India has none at all for spelling. Building "a US curriculum" would mean choosing one state's version and getting it wrong for every other state.
What this means if your child is not at school in England
Most of Spelling.Live doesn't depend on the curriculum at all. Wherever your child goes to school:
- Their own word lists come first. Add the list your child brings home from school, and that's what they practise.
- Their own English is used. You choose UK, US, Australian or Indian English for each child. That sets which spellings are accepted and the accent the words are read aloud in.
- Their school year uses local names. Settings show Foundation, 2nd grade or Class 3, as appropriate.
- Ready-made lists by year level are on our Australian, US and Indian spelling word pages.
The one place England's curriculum shows is the Curriculum report, which groups rules under England's year headings. If your child is in Australia, use the table above to read those headings - and in most cases you'll find the rules match closely what their class is covering.
If the curriculum isn't the right yardstick for your family, you can switch it off for each child in their settings under "How they practise". The year headings disappear, and everything else stays: the Started - Nearly there - Secure scale, badges, and practice aimed at the rules your child keeps getting wrong. There's more on how that scale works in our post on what "secure" means.