Spelling and Handwriting
In line with the National Curriculum, spelling and handwriting are taught regularly to all children. Developing automaticity in spelling and handwriting reduces cognitive load for children when writing, allowing them to concentrate on compositional elements. We believe that systematic synthetic phonics teaching is effective for all ages and enables us to be inclusive; therefore, we use it as our main approach to ensure consistency across the school. Writing also depends on fluent, legible and, eventually, efficient handwriting, therefore we prioritise regular, careful practice of this skill.
Phonics in EYFS and Year 1
At Great Rollright, we use Essential Letters and Sounds (ELS) – a DfE-validated programme – which delivers a consistent, rigorous and dynamic phonics programme designed to teach every child to read by the age of six. Using synthetic phonics, children learn to blend letter sounds together through a fun and effective sequence of lessons. Children receive a 45-minute lesson daily, with small-group intervention or 1:1 work beyond this to ensure that all children keep up with the sequence of instruction. For more information, see the phonics section of our website.
Spelling in Year 2 and KS2
Spelling in Y2 and KS2 is taught based on Diane McGuinness’ research, which identifies 176 common spellings for the 44 sounds in English. Each week, we focus on a different phoneme, beginning on a Monday with a teacher-guided session to introduce the phoneme and its corresponding graphemes. This learning is then revisited and consolidated through daily work throughout the week, involving independent practice, guided and paired work. Teaching this way allows us to deliver the National Curriculum spelling objectives but also ensures we can plug any gaps in the children’s phonetic knowledge.
In year 2, we spend time consolidating the ELS phonics programme, as we find that children have mastered their phonics for reading by the end of year 1, but they require further time to bring this same level of mastery to their application within spelling.
In year 3 to 6, we have clearly mapped a plan for how the graphemes for each phoneme are distributed across Years 3-6 to ensure that enough of the phonics code is mastered to allow fluency and automaticity of spelling base words. For example, there are 12 graphemes for the phoneme /s/: Year 3 learn 5 of these graphemes (some they have already learnt in KS1, some new); Year 4 have 8 graphemes (an additional 3 graphemes, whilst also recapping those in Year 3); Year 5 have 10 and Year 6 have the full 12. The year 3/4 and 5/6 statutory words and homophones have been split into their constituent sounds, so they are often covered multiple times across the year (e.g. ‘accommodate’ would be taught in the week of the /k/ sound and the /a-e/ sound).
We have this journey mapped out so that, in the UKS2 Autumn term, children will have completed their work on confidently understanding the phonics needed to reliably spell all base words. In the UKS2 Spring and Summer terms, children look at the spelling conventions that help them add affixes to free and bound bases, through the study of morphology and etymology.
For children who struggle with spelling, we individually tailor the lists according to their needs to ensure they can access an appropriate level of challenge whilst still being included in whole-class work.
In EYFS and Y1, we use Phonics Tracker to ensure that we have detailed knowledge about children’s acquisition of phonetic knowledge.
From Y2–Y6, we track pupils’ spelling progress using NFER Spelling assessments, and when we want more detailed insight into pupils’ progress, we use the Schonell Spelling Age assessment.
Handwriting
Kinetic Letters® is a handwriting programme for use in primary and secondary schools. We use this programme here at Great Rollright to make handwriting automatic, so that all the brain’s attention can be on the writing content, which research has shown is crucial to ensuring children are successful writers. This program carefully combines research and development of the physical and cognitive skills that need to be learnt and become part of the pupil’s automatic cognitive skill set.
The programme has four Threads.
- Making bodies stronger
- Holding the pencil (for speed, comfort and legibility)
- Learning the letters
- Flow and fluency
The Kinetic Letters® font covers all letters of the alphabet and is based on a set of rules designed to be as simple as possible, enabling fast learning. The order in which letters are taught recognises children’s cognitive development.
The Kinetic Letters programme commences in Reception and is used throughout the school. By the end of KS1, each pupil should be working at the national standard, and most should be working at a greater depth. Children begin joining in Yr 2 or Yr 3. By the end of KS2, most pupils should be working at or above the Expected Standard, with the exceptions being pupils who started their primary education elsewhere and statemented pupils.
Handwriting practice takes place in sessions outside English lessons, since handwriting underpins most curriculum areas and is integral to self-esteem and engagement with learning. Handwriting is taught in discrete sessions, separate from Phonics. Pupils in EYFS and KS1 do daily handwriting sessions of at least 20 minutes. Thereafter, each year begins with a recap and a focus on letter formation to maintain handwriting development and increase speed and flow, and the rest of the year’s practice occurs at the teacher’s discretion as needed to support continued progress. Most of the time, sessions are taught to the whole class, using differentiated Kinetic Letters strategies and resources. Reinforcement may take place in small groups and/or individually.
Formative and summative assessment is built into the structure of the S.T.A.R.T. handwriting session, and teachers and pupils use the Kinetic Letters strategy of Assess, Detect, Correct (ADC) for all Threads of Kinetic Letters. This is both during specific handwriting sessions and when monitoring the transfer of the physical and cognitive handwriting skills into daily classwork.
Information for Parents: Kinetic letter formation guide
Information for Parents Handwriting policy 2025-26