At the beginning of Phase 6, children will have already learnt the most popular grapheme/phoneme correspondences. They will be able to read many familiar words automatically. When they come across unfamiliar words they will in many cases be able to decode them quickly and quietly using their well-developed sounding and blending skills. With more complex unfamiliar words they will often be able to decode them by sounding them out. At this stage, children should be able to spell words phonemically although not always correctly. In Phase 6, the main aim is for children to become more fluent readers and more accurate spellers. Phase 6 teaches new spelling rules to help children become increasingly accurate in their writing.
The children are taught:
- Revisit alternative spellings for each phoneme with a focus on spelling rules and ‘best bet’ rules.
- Spelling rules when adding -ing, -ed, est, -y to words.
- Adding suffixes -ing, -ed, -er, -est and -y to words.
- Adding suffixes -es to nouns and verbs ending in y.
- The suffixes -ment, -ness, -ful, -less and -ly.
- Letter strings: words ending in -tion, -le, -el, -al, -il.
- Letter strings: using ‘or’ or ‘ar’ after w.
- Apostrophes for contractions and possession.
- Homophones and near homophones for spelling.
- How to spell the following words as well as all the tricky words from previous phases.
