This year we are going to trial NOT giving children a list of spellings to learn for a test each week. (Some parents may breathe a sigh of relief at this while others of you may have liked it as a way to work with your children at home.) However, research has proved that just learning lists for a test is not beneficial to the quality of children’s writing. We will still be teaching spelling rules and still be holding spelling ‘tests’, but are approaching spellings in a less formal and more contextualised way to support children to progress further with their writing. We will frequently send the tests home so that you can see how your child is developing. We have included ways to help your children with spellings; please see the spelling section on the homework sheet. Most of the suggestions are based around activities or games to aid longer term memory for spelling, rather than short term superficial learning for a test. We will also send home word-mats for the children, with the spellings that the Government published in the National Curriculum. These provide ideas for words to practise/play the games with.