Statutory requirements

The boundary between revision of work covered in Reception and the introduction of new work may vary according to the programme used, but basic revision should include:

• all letters of the alphabet and the sounds which they most commonly represent
• consonant digraphs which have been taught and the sounds which they represent
• vowel digraphs which have been taught and the sounds which they represent
• the process of segmenting spoken words into sounds before choosing graphemes to represent the sounds
• words with adjacent consonants
• guidance and rules which have been taught

The sounds /f/, /l/, /s/, /z/ and /k/ spelt ff, ll, ss, zz and ck

The /f/, /l/, /s/, /z/ and /k/ sounds are usually spelt as ff, ll, ss, zz and ck if they come straight after a single vowel letter in short words. Exceptions: if, pal, us, bus, yes.

off, well, miss, buzz, back

The /ŋ/ sound spelt n before k

bank, think, honk, sunk

Division of words into syllables

Each syllable is like a ‘beat’ in the spoken word. Words of more than one syllable often have an unstressed syllable in which the vowel sound is unclear.

pocket, rabbit, carrot, thunder, sunset

-tch

The /tʃ/ sound is usually spelt as tch if it comes straight after a single vowel letter. Exceptions: rich, which, much, such.

catch, fetch, kitchen, notch, hutch

The /v/ sound at the end of words

English words hardly ever end with the letter v, so if a word ends with a /v/ sound, the letter e usually needs to be added after the ‘v’.

have, live, give

Adding s and es to words (plural of nouns and the third person singular of verbs)

If the ending sounds like /s/ or /z/, it is spelt as –s. If the ending sounds like /ɪz/ and forms an extra syllable or ‘beat’ in the word, it is spelt as –es.

cats, dogs, spends, rocks, thanks, catches

Adding the endings –ing, –ed and –er to verbs where no change is needed to the root word

–ing and –er always add an extra syllable to the word and –ed sometimes does.

The past tense of some verbs may sound as if it ends in /ɪd/ (extra syllable), /d/ or /t/ (no extra syllable), but all these endings are spelt –ed.

If the verb ends in two consonant letters (the same or different), the ending is simply added on.

hunting, hunted, hunter, buzzing, buzzed, buzzer, jumping, jumped, jumper

Adding –er and –est to adjectives where no change is needed to the root word

As with verbs (see above), if the adjective ends in two consonant letters (the same or different), the ending is simply added on.

grander, grandest, fresher, freshest, quicker, quickest

ai, oi

The digraphs ai and oi are virtually never used at the end of English words.

rain, wait, train, paid, afraid
oil, join, coin, point, soil

ay, oy

ay and oy are used for those sounds at the end of words and at the end of syllables.

day, play, say, way, stay
boy, toy, enjoy, annoy

a–e

made, came, same, take, safe

e–e

these, theme, complete

i–e

five, ride, like, time, side

o–e

home, those, woke, hope, hole

u–e

Both the /u:/ and /ju:/ (‘oo’ and ‘yoo’) sounds can be spelt as u–e.

June, rule, rude, use, tube, tune

ar

car, start, park, arm, garden

ee

see, tree, green, meet, week

ea (/i:/)

sea, dream, meat, each, read (present tense)

ea (/ɛ/)

head, bread, meant, instead, read (past tense)

er (/ɜ:/)

(stressed sound): her, term, verb, person

er (/ə/)

(unstressed schwa sound): better, under, summer, winter, sister

ir

girl, bird, shirt, first, third

ur

turn, hurt, church, burst, Thursday

oo (/u:/)

Very few words end with the letters oo, although the few that do are often words that primary children in year 1 will encounter, for example, zoo

food, pool, moon, zoo, soon

oo (/ʊ/)

book, took, foot, wood, good

oa

The digraph oa is very rare at the end of an English word.

boat, coat, road, coach, goal

oe

toe, goes

ou

The only common English word ending in ou is you.

out, about, mouth, around, sound

ow (/aʊ/)

ow (/əʊ/)

ue

ew

Both the /u:/ and /ju:/ (‘oo’ and ‘yoo’) sounds can be spelt as u–e, ue and ew. If words end in the /oo/ sound, ue and ew are more common spellings than oo.

now, how, brown, down, town
own, blow, snow, grow, show
blue, clue, true, rescue, Tuesday
new, few, grew, flew, drew, threw

ie (/aɪ/)

lie, tie, pie, cried, tried, dried

ie (/i:/)

chief, field, thief

igh

high, night, light, bright, right

or

for, short, born, horse, morning

ore

more, score, before, wore, shore

aw

saw, draw, yawn, crawl

au

author, August, dinosaur, astronaut

air

air, fair, pair, hair, chair

ear

dear, hear, beard, near, year

ear (/ɛə/)

bear, pear, wear

are (/ɛə/)

bare, dare, care, share, scared

Words ending –y (/i:/ or /ɪ/)

very, happy, funny, party, family

New consonant spellings ph and wh

The /f/ sound is not usually spelt as ph in short everyday words (e.g. fat, fill, fun).

dolphin, alphabet, phonics, elephant
when, where, which, wheel, while

Using k for the /k/ sound

The /k/ sound is spelt as k rather than as c before e, i and y.

Kent, sketch, kit, skin, frisky

Adding the prefix –un

The prefix un– is added to the beginning of a word without any change to the spelling of the root word.

unhappy, undo, unload, unfair, unlock

Compound words

Compound words are two words joined together. Each part of the longer word is spelt as it would be if it were on its own.

football, playground, farmyard, bedroom, blackberry

Common exception words

Pupils’ attention should be drawn to the grapheme-phoneme correspondences that do and do not fit in with what has been taught so far.

the, a, do, to, today, of, said, says, are, were, was, is, his, has, I, you, your, they, be, he, me, she, we, no, go, so, by, my, here, there, where, love, come, some, one, once, ask, friend, school, put, push, pull, full, house, our – and/or others, according to the programme used