At Michael Drayton Junior School, new for the 2023-24 academic year, we have introduced Spelling Shed as our new Spelling scheme. An exciting and engaging scheme, which aligns with the English National Curriculum, allows children to learn their spellings in a fun and exciting way by playing a range of interactive games. Each week, your child is introduced to their spellings and taught about spelling rules and patterns. In school, time is assigned for the children to familiarise themselves with their spellings by completing activities such as:

- Spelling matching games

- Completing sentences by putting the spelling into a sentence

- Segmenting into syllables and phonemes

- Word searches

- Dictionary defintions

- Handwriting practice

Your child has their own log-on to access Spelling Shed at home. Each week, teachers will set an assignment which links to the spelling pattern and spellings that have been taught in class.  Children can practise their spellings online via Spelling Shed by selecting one of four levels of differentiated game, allowing them to practise their spellings at a level they find challenging.

Children receive points and honeypots when they spell words correctly and for speed bonuses and accuracy. They can use these points to upgrade their ‘Avatar.’ Your child’s class teacher will be able to track your child’s progress to see which words they are finding difficult to spell each week.

Our staff understand that not all families have access to a device at home and therefore, all copies of spellings assigned each week will be stuck into homework diaries weekly.

As vocabulary increases through exposure to high quality texts,  pupils begin to more fully understand the relationships between words, how to understand differences in meaning and how to develop their use of creative figurative language. Pupils are taught how to work out and clarify the meanings and spellings of familiar and unfamiliar words based on a growing set of strategies taught by their class teacher.