In primary school, children learn how to spell words in a clear and structured way, building their skills step by step as they move through each year.
At first, children learn to spell by listening to the sounds in words and writing down the letters that match those sounds. This is taught through phonics, which helps them spell simple words like cat, ship or rain. As they get older, they learn that some words don’t follow the usual spelling rules — these are often called tricky words or common exception words (like said, the, or was). Children also learn about:
- Spelling patterns and rules
- Prefixes and suffixes
- Word meanings and origins, which help them understand how spellings are linked to word families.