Spelling

At New Islington free school, we develop spelling and writing skills throughout every subject and throughout every day.

We know that some children find learning spellings easy and some find them hard; we know that some children always achieve a high score in spelling tests but then do not apply this knowledge in their everyday writing. Some children find it hard to learn spellings for a test and yet spell accurately within their everyday writing.

As well as the phonic strategies of decoding, segmenting and blending, many words still have to learned as rote, sometimes referred to as ‘common exception words’. We use the No-Nonsense approach to teaching spelling here at New Islington. No Nonsense Spelling is a new complete spelling programme designed to meet the needs of the 2014 National Curriculum in a manageable way. It is easy to use, flexible and comprehensive, providing an effective spelling teaching programme from Year 2 to Year 6.

As a part of every child's homework, spelling lists are sent home and we encourage parents & carers to help your children to work on these daily - little and often is the key to success.