September 2016
Dear Parents,
In Year 3, children are taught the following spelling rules (and exceptions) throughout the Autumn, Spring and
Summer terms. Every 3 or 4 weeks, the children will have a review test that will include spelling rules taught so far.
This will help us to assess whether children have learnt the rules and can apply them. Alongside this, teachers will
include words from the National Curriculum (100 statutory words for Y3/4) and/or any common misspellings that
arise within class. The test will be made up of 20 words that the teacher reads out and the child writes down. The
sets of words in each section are examples. Teachers will not necessarily include these in the tests.
What could I be doing at home to help?
It will still be helpful for children to practise the words from the ‘100 statutory words’ list, focusing on the words
they spell incorrectly.
If they are confident spellers, they could practise the statutory words for Y5 & 6. Alternatively, a more enriching
experience may be for your child to apply his/her spelling skills by playing word games such as Scrabble,
Bananagram, Boggle etc. Many of these games can be played with an adult, friend or on a computer/tablet.
If spelling is something that your child is having difficulty with e.g. there are words / patterns that s/he consistently
misspells, the teacher may share the test outcomes with you and set some personalised learning. Children with
specific learning difficulties relating to spelling e.g. dyslexia will have the test tailored to their needs.
Key Objectives from Year 2 (revision)
LO. I know that the ‘ie’ sound is made by ‘y’ at the end of words
LO. I know when to add ‘s’, ‘es’ and change ‘y’ to an ‘i’ to make plurals
LO. I know when to add ‘ed’, ‘d’ , change ‘y’ to an ‘i’ or double a consonant to form the regular past
tense
LO. I know the rules for adding the suffixes ‘ment’ ‘ness’ ‘ful’ ‘less’ ‘ly’
Estimate
dates of
teaching
Autumn
Week 1-3
Year 3 New Objectives:
LO. I know whether to double letters when adding ‘ing’, ‘ed’, ‘er’, or ‘en’
Teaching Points:
If the last syllable of a word is stressed and ends with one consonant letter that has just one vowel
letter before it, the final consonant letter is doubled before any ending beginning with a vowel letter
is added. The consonant letter is not doubled if the syllable is unstressed.
stopped
thinner
forgotten
running
beginning
preferred
hunter
sorted
gardener
jumping
started
limiting
LO. I know when to use ‘y’ for the ‘i’ sound in the middle of words
gym
mystery
Egypt
myth
pyramid
sympathy
LO. I know when to use ‘ou’ for the ‘u’ sound
touch
country
encourage
young
trouble
cousin
rough
double
nourish
tough
couple
enough
Autumn
Week 4-6
Autumn
Week 7-9
Autumn
Week 1014
LO. I can use the suffix ‘ous’
Teaching Points:
Spring
Week 1-3
 Sometimes the root word is obvious and the usual rules apply for adding suffixes beginning
with vowel letters. Sometimes there is no obvious root word.
 –our is changed to –or before –ous is added eg. glamour -> glamorous
 A final ‘e’ of the root word must be kept if the sound of ‘j’ (spelt ‘g’) is to be kept eg. courage
-> courageous
 If there is an /i:/ sound before the –ous ending, it is usually spelt as i eg. curious but a few
words have e
eg. hideous
dangerous
poisonous
glamourous
enormous
fabulous
courageous
famous
serious
obvious
jealous
delicious
hideous
LO. I can use prefixes which have negative meanings ‘un’ ‘dis’ ‘mis’ ‘in’ ‘im’ ‘il’
Teaching Points:
Spring
 Most prefixes are added to the beginning of root words without any changes in spelling, but seeWeek 4-6
in– below.
 Like un-, the prefixes dis- and mis- have negative meanings
 The prefix in– can mean both ‘not’ and ‘in’/‘into’. In the words given below it means ‘not’.
 Before a root word starting with l, in– becomes il.
 Before a root word starting with m or p, in– becomes im–.
 Before a root word starting with r, in– becomes ir–.
undo
illegal
mislead
misplace
impossible
impatient
dislike
misbehave
disappoint
incorrect
disagree
irresponsible
LO. I can use prefixes ‘re’ ‘sub’ ‘inter’ ‘super’ ‘anti’ ‘auto’, which change the meaning of words
Teaching Points:
Spring
Week 7-10
 re– means ‘again’ or ‘back’
 super– means ‘above’
 sub– means ‘under’
 anti– means ‘against’
 inter– means ‘between’ or ‘among’
 auto– means ‘self’ or ‘own’.
redo
supermarket
submerge
return
anticlockwise
international
subheading
international
autograph
interact
reappear
autobiography
superman
submarine
antiseptic
LO. I can spell words with the ‘k’ sound spelt ‘ch’
Teaching Points: words are usually Greek in origin
Summer
week 1-3
echo
chemist
scheme
ache
monarch
character
anchor
technical
orchestra
stomach
chorus
chaos
LO. I can spell words where the ‘sh’ sound is spelt with ‘ch’
Teaching Points: words are mostly French in origin
Summer
week 4-6
chef
machine
parachute
chalet
brochure
champagne
chute
crochet
moustache
LO. I can choose the correct way to make the ‘ay’ sound ‘ei’ ‘eigh’ ‘ey’
vein
weight
neighbour
Summer
obey
eight
beige
week 7-10
they
neigh
eighteen
reins
reign
sleigh
National Curriculum 100 statutory words for Y3/4 (also available on Squeebles spelling)
A:
accident
actual
actually
address
answer
appear
arrive
B:
believe
bicycle
breath
build
business
busy
G:
grammar
group
guard
guide
M:
material
medicine
mention
minute
S:
sentence
separate
special
straight
strange
strength
suppose
surprise
H:
heard
heart
height
history
C:
D:
calendar
caught
centre
century
certain
circle
complete
consider
continue
decide
describe
different
difficult
disappear
I:
J:
imagine
important
important
increase
interest
interest
island
N:
natural
naughty
notice
T:
therefore
though
thought
early
earth
eight
enough
exercise
experience
experiment
extreme
P:
particular
peculiar
perhaps
perhaps
popular
position
possess
possession
possible
potatoes
pressure
probably
promise
purpose
U:
V:
various
F:
famous
favourite
February
forward
fruit
K:
knowledge
O:
occasion
occasionally
often
opposite
ordinary
E:
Q:
quarter
question
W:
weight
woman
women
L:
learn
length
library
R:
recent
regular
reign
remember
XYZ: