Waggon Lane, Upton, Pontefract, West Yorkshire, WF9 1JS

01977 650820



Upton Primary School

Year 1 & 2 Spellings

What about the really tricky words/common exception words?

Common exception words are just that, they are words  that are an exception to the rules and patterns taught in phonics and spelling lessons. They are commonly referred to a ‘tricky words’ as they have to be learnt separately. When we teach 'tricky' we ask children to identify the part of the word that is tricky.  This helps them remember what's unusual about them.  From time to time, when a word is particularly challenging we might make up a mnemonic (a little poem to help remember the word).  The children sometimes make up their own.  Here are some examples below:

Spelling rules and patterns.

You can teach yourself to be a better speller. Many spellings follow rules that allow us to apply these to many words. Once your child has been taught these rules they can then apply these to a number of other words. Each year group will be taught different rules and patterns. You can see examples of the rules your child will be taught below.