Spelling – Years 5 & 6

The National Curriculum provides a spelling appendix, intended to give rules and guidance to support the teaching of spelling. Below are the statutory requirements for year 5 and 6, along with some example words and a link to an activity that can be used to support the teaching and learning of this requirement.

Statutory RequirementExample WordsPlayful Games to Play
Endings which sound like /ʃəs/ spelt –cious or –tiousvicious, precious, conscious, delicious, malicious, suspicious,
ambitious, cautious, fictitious, infectious, nutritious
Endings which sound like /ʃəl/official, special, artificial, partial, confidential, essential
Words ending in –ant, –ance/–ancy, –ent, –ence/–encyobservant, observance, (observation), expectant (expectation), hesitant, hesitancy (hesitation),
tolerant, tolerance (toleration), substance (substantial)

innocent, innocence, decent, decency, frequent, frequency, confident, confidence (confidential)

assistant, assistance, obedient, obedience, independent, independence
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Words ending in –able and –ible
Words ending in –ably and –ibly
adorable/adorably (adoration), applicable/applicably (application),
considerable/considerably (consideration), tolerable/tolerably (toleration)
changeable, noticeable, forcible, legible

dependable, comfortable, understandable, reasonable, enjoyable, reliable

possible/possibly, horrible/horribly, terrible/terribly, visible/visibly, incredible/incredibly,
sensible/sensibly
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Adding suffixes beginning with vowel letters to
words ending in –fer
referring, referred, referral, preferring, preferred, transferring, transferred
reference, referee, preference, transference
Use of the hyphenco-ordinate, re-enter, co-operate, co-own
Words with the /i:/ sound spelt ei after cdeceive, conceive, receive, perceive, ceiling
Words containing the letter-string oughought, bought, thought, nought, brought, fought, rough, tough, enough cough
though, although, dough, through thorough, borough, plough, bough
Words with ‘silent’ letters (i.e. letters whose presence
cannot be predicted from the pronunciation of the word)
doubt, island, lamb, solemn, thistle, knight1
Homophones and other words that are often confusedadvice/advise, device/devise, licence/license, practice/practise, prophecy/prophesy

More examples to be found in the Spelling Appendix (see link below)
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To see the whole spelling appendix click here.