At Darras Hall, our spelling curriculum is designed to move children from phonics-based decoding to a deep understanding of morphology (the building blocks of words) and etymology (the origin of words). 

This structured approach ensures that children do not just memorise lists, but instead develop the tools to spell thousands of words independently.

The Foundation: Phonics and "Tricky Words" (Reception & Year 1)

In the early years, we focus on Grapheme-Phoneme Correspondences (GPCs). Children learn to associate sounds with specific letter patterns, starting with simple Phase 2 sounds and progressing to complex Phase 5 alternates. Alongside these, we teach "Tricky Words"—words like the, said, and people—which are frequent in the English language but do not yet follow the phonetic rules the children have learned.

The Transition: Bridge to Spelling (Year 2)

Year 2 acts as a "bridge," reviewing phonics while introducing the "why" behind spelling rules. Children begin to investigate:

• Prickly Spellings: Common words with unusual patterns, such as busy, laugh, and thought.

• Spelling Rules: Why we double letters (e.g., in words ending in -er) or swap a 'y' for an 'i' when adding suffixes like -ed.

• Homophones: Distinguishing between words that sound the same but have different meanings, such as see/sea or there/their/they’re.

The Power of Morphology (Years 3 to 6)

From Year 3 onwards, the curriculum shifts to morphology, starting every year with the question, "Why morphology?". Instead of looking at words as a string of letters, children learn to see them as a combination of roots, prefixes, and suffixes:

• Prefixes: Learning that de- means "down/away" helps them spell describe, decide, and depart.

• Suffixes: Understanding how -ion, -ous, and -able change the function of a word.

• Greek and Latin Roots: In the upper years, children study roots like therm (heat), aud (hear), and vert (turn), which unlocks the spelling and meaning of complex academic vocabulary.

The Statutory Word Lists

The Department for Education provides statutory word lists for Year 3/4 and Year 5/6. Rather than teaching these in isolation, we integrate them into our weekly morphological study wherever possible.

• Some words are taught when their specific morpheme is the focus (e.g., century is taught during the "cent" week in Year 4).

• Words that do not fit a specific pattern are grouped and taught in dedicated weeks or as "Prickly Spellings" to ensure full coverage by the end of each Key Stage.

Continuous Review

Our plan includes regular Assessment and Revision weeks at the end of every half term. This ensures that previously taught morphemes and statutory words are revisited and embedded into children's long-term memory, allowing them to become fluent, confident writers.