Spelling Shed

From September 2020, The Spelling Shed will be the platform we will be using for English homework in Years One to Six.

The decision to use The Spelling Shed as our homework platform has been informed by a number of factors:
- it's a homework system that is engaging for children;
- it enables children to get instant feedback for how successful they are with their learning;
- it allows children to retrieve previous knowledge and get vital extra practice;
- spelling is a foundational skill that we use all the time — developing fluency in spelling allows children the 'mental bandwidth' to think creatively;
- teachers can track the children's level of activity online;
- teachers can see specific feedback about the spellings that children are making errors with, allowing them to plan to address misconceptions in class.

Each week, teachers will assign their class a word list to practise on Spelling Shed. This word list will either align with their current learning in class or revise learning from a previous unit. This complements what the children are doing in lessons in school and doesn't ask children to learn something for the first time without instruction. A good way to think of it is to think of teachers typically focusing on getting information about how to spell into students’ heads. The purpose of Spelling Shed is to give children more opportunities to retrieve information 'out' of their head — bringing information to mind enhances and boosts learning.

The Spelling Shed game has been developed to be ‘dyslexia friendly’ using the ‘Open Dyslexic’ font and has three levels of difficulty to support pupils of all abilities through the spelling lists with appropriate degrees of challenge. It is playable through any of the main internet browsers, as well as an app that can be downloaded for Apple and Android phones and tablets.

You can find more detailed information about the activities, scoring and functionality in the parent guide below: