Spelling

At Elm Tree we use the CUSP Spelling curriculum. This has been designed to ensure that children acquire deep knowledge about the English spelling system. The curriculum is written  to allow teachers to move backwards and forwards depending on the starting points for their children. Our curriculum allows all teachers to develop the deep subject knowledge required to teach the statutory content of the National Curriculum for Spelling. CUSP Spelling is a balanced approach,  drawing together knowledge about phonics and vocabulary and pairing this with pattern seeking and reasoning. 

Spelling sessions are organised into 2-week blocks, with each block covering a particular set of spelling patterns, etymology and morphology and reasoning about spelling.

These blocks are made up of three lessons per week: 2 x 15 minute discrete Spelling lessons and 1 x Spelling starter for the final Writing lesson of each week.

Revisiting is written into the long term sequence, both within and across year groups. Years 2-6 have 16 x 2-week blocks, leaving a small number of weeks for flexible content. This could include revisiting, assessment or enrichment. Year 1 has 6 blocks, which can be delivered during the Summer term to begin to build on pupils’ strong grasp of phonics at this point.