Despite a greater focus on spelling in schools, some pupils still struggle to meet the expected standard in writing because of gaps in their spelling knowledge. The sticking point initially seems to be retention and application of their current year group expectations. However, upon digging deeper, it is often apparent that many children do not have the firm foundations of spelling content from previous year groups on which to build.

The 2024 Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling (GPS) paper for Y6 once again had a heavy focus on words from the Y3/4 programme of study, thus reinforcing the idea that prior learning needs to be revisited. There are few words that rely solely on one KS2 spelling pattern. In fact, only 5/20 (25%) words tested relied solely upon Y5/6 spelling objectives. For example, the word frequently requires that children be taught the Y5/6 spelling pattern relating to words ending ent/ant or ence/ance and also understand how to add the suffix ly which is reviewed in Y3/4. However, if children have gaps in spelling knowledge pertaining to the Y2 programme of study, then even tracking back to Y3/4 may not be enough.  For example, although the mark scheme refers to the Y3/4 prefix and suffix knowledge for the word replacing, children will also need to know about the ‘soft c’ from Y2.  As the KS1 spelling programme of study forms the bedrock of spelling in KS2, it is wise to allow time to revisit that foundational learning as much as possible during the first term of each year. For a full analysis of the 2024 spelling paper, please see the attached document:

Building connections for long-term memory

The English language is rich, complex and at times seemingly unpredictable – especially when it comes to spelling. With so much content to be learned between Y1 and Y6, is it any wonder that some children might struggle to retain that wealth of knowledge? The burden seems particularly heavy for Y6 pupils if they are expected to recall the myriad spelling patterns they have ever been taught.

However, we can all think of children who just seem to know how to spell a word after first exposure to it - they even seem able to spell words they have never met before.  Are such children blessed with a phenomenal memory for individual words or have they have actually got a very efficient scheme for sorting, grouping and storing words in their long-term memory?

The latter is undoubtedly true. Confident spellers are (even unconsciously) creating an orthographical schema in their minds: new learning is assimilated and stored within the appropriate section. Conversely, I often meet children who do not seem to see any analogies between words, or patterns that appear across them, but instead, view each word as a new and unique entity. Unlike working memory, long-term memory has limitless capacity, but recall is easier if there’s a system in place rather than abject chaos.

With thousands of words to assimilate and remember, all children benefit from being taught the most efficient way to organise their spelling knowledge ready for access ‘on demand’. If a child is supported to remember the pattern or convention pertaining to a subset of their spelling knowledge, they have fewer facts to remember than if they are trying to remember each word individually. Initially, frequent revisiting of that pattern is essential to build this into the long-term memory and facilitate recall but over time, this learning becomes embedded and can be called upon whenever needed.

In order to support children with this knowledge organisation, it is imperative that spelling lessons are not simply given over to practising sets of words, as is often the case. Instead, time must be prioritised to teach the patterns, conventions and rules that govern English spelling, so that children can apply this knowledge to new words.  

Securing foundational learning

In phonics teaching, once an original GPC (grapheme phoneme correspondence) has been learned for the 44 sounds in the English language, children are taught alternative ways to represent these sounds in spelling.  New learning should build on prior learning, and connections to existing knowledge should be supported by reminding children of what they already know. For example, children have learnt ‘ee’ for feel but now learn that some words are spelt with ‘ea’ like cream.  Attention should be drawn to patterns and analogies so that children can best predict which version to use. For example, ea often follows an r or t or precedes an m e.g. scream, dream, team or tease. This would have been useful recall for children spelling the word increase in this year’s GPS paper in Y6.

Connection building should not stop with KS1 phonics. At a glance, the Y5/6 spelling list seems to be a random collection of unconnected words. They could be grouped according to theme, or grouped broadly into spelling patterns such as ‘words containing silent letters’, or simply given to children in batches of ten or so words at a time, for them to practise and learn. But, more usefully, could they be linked to prior learning and added to a child’s internalised spelling schema?

Let’s take the first word on the list: accommodation. If you give children this word to learn, they may well remember it for a test on Friday. If you teach children a mnemonic for this such as ‘there is room for two c’s and two m’s in accommodation’ then they may well be able to recall the correct spelling of this word when they need it. But how often will they need it? Will the mnemonic be forgotten or muddled by the time the word is next employed? If however, you teach children that a consonant is generally doubled if it appears immediately after a short vowel (such as the ‘short a’ and first o in accommodation) then a pupil will not only know how to spell this word, but over twenty more that use this convention in the Y5/6 list alone, as well as hundreds of others that they use in their day to day writing.

Conventions and connections

The ‘doubling after a short vowel’ convention is a handy ‘trick’ to have up your sleeve.  It’s also one that many primary pupils seem oblivious to, as I tend to see lack of doubling (and sometimes doubling where it is not required) as a common spelling issue across key stage 2. The words affected range from two syllable words ending in y (such as happy) or in le (such as middle) to those that change with added suffixes (such as dropped or swimming) and all the way through to multi-syllabic words (such as disappeared or opportunity). When questioned, many children are unable to articulate the ‘rule’ of doubling and yet this is something that is taught in reception (less, puff, ill) and Y1 (puppy/ jelly vs baby/ lady) and then again in Y2 (where you need to be able to decide whether to double up consonants in words such as jungle or puddle, jumping or skipping). It stands to reason that regular revisiting of this convention would consolidate prior knowledge and give children a much firmer foundation on which to add the Year 5/6 statutory words that follow.

Closing learning gaps

Clearly, whether to double a consonant or not is an essential piece of knowledge and that is why these conventions are introduced in KS1. The same must be said of spelling statements pertaining to the various le endings or the addition of suffixes. However, many spelling schemes seem to ignore (or at best give scant notice to) the very first statement in each national curriculum spelling appendix, which clearly states that ‘children should revise work done in previous years’. At the start of the Y3/4 programme of study for example, in relation to revision of work from years 1 and 2, it advises: ‘Pay special attention to the rules for adding suffixes’.

If you have a child in Y6 who is still spelling hopeful with a double l or families with a y, then the chances are that they have forgotten all about the Y2 programme of study from four years ago. Hence my initial point about tracking back to build on prior learning and providing opportunities for spaced recall of that learning. Indeed, for some children, the Y2 programme of study may have eluded them altogether. Many of the suffixes such as –ment, -less or –ness are requirements for children working at the greater depth standard, so there is a good chance that some children may have been working on earlier spelling priorities or trying to secure early phonics at the time, and have never really been taught these conventions.

ESSENTIALSPELLING

Unlike most spelling schemes, HFL Education’s ESSENTIALSPELLING programme doesn’t just focus on age related expectations, assuming prior teaching has been retained for good. Objectives from previous year groups are continually revisited and woven into each year group so that children can build on prior learning.

A systematic shoring up of the foundations of spelling knowledge, aided by strategies to secure retention will help children with gaps in their spelling. The first step is the identification of the gaps to enable tracking back to prior learning.  ESSENTIALSPELLING is designed to show teachers how the spelling statements link and build, thus aiding planning and adaptive teaching. 

History and geography are inextricably linked as subjects in their exploration of our planet, how we live and why we live the way we do. However, they are very different from a planning and teaching perspective, in terms of their national curriculum content and structure.

The national curriculum for primary history is clear on which aspects and time periods of the past we should focus on, particularly at key stage 2: A single bullet point such as ‘the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain’ can become the main content focus of a unit of learning.

Geography is organised differently. Let’s explore this further:

In geography, although the national curriculum sets out the broad content that we must teach at the respective key stages, the objectives are not neatly divided into year groups or topics, and the places to be studied are not specified beyond which continent. This leaves subject leaders and teachers to craft their own projects and units of work or to look to published schemes and materials to support them. This can be both liberating and confusing!

For example, one attainment target for ‘Locational knowledge’ in key stage 2 says:

• locate the world’s countries, using maps to focus on Europe (including the location of Russia) and North and South America, concentrating on their environmental regions, key physical and human characteristics, countries and major cities

This target is designed to be broken down, rather than taught as a single point. For example, a Year 3 or 4 unit might take a European focus, where a Year 5 or 6 unit might take a South American focus. These are school-level choices. Published schemes have often made these choices for us, but it is up to school leaders to reassure themselves that these choices are right for their setting.

With this level of choice in mind, where do we begin? How do we develop a scheme of work that:

Another challenge is around how we create a curriculum that enables children to secure deep understanding and make progress as they move through the planned units? What connects the units of learning? What are pupils making progress with?

In order to ‘make progress’ it is likely that we will want to identify strands (concepts and threads) that repeat and deepen.

The final challenge is weaving in disciplinary learning - helping children to understand what it means to think and behave like a geographer, through meaningful experiences, that again build and progress over time.

With these elements in mind - the level of choice we have, and the need to have concepts/threads and disciplinary thinking which connect the learning across units, progressing and deepening over time - let’s consider how we might build and structure a curriculum, or simply interrogate and refine our existing geography curriculum.

Let’s start by looking at the possible layers of learning that a geography curriculum could contain, presenting some of the above thinking in the form of a diagram.

Layers of learning in geography

In the diagram above, we can see the top layer of learning refers to the projects, topics or units of work. These are commonly found on a school’s long-term plan and are an overview of what the children will study in different year groups. Here, we may see topics such as, ‘Kenya,’ ‘rivers,’ ‘farming in the UK,’ ‘How is life in Mumbai different from life here?’ or ‘What is it like to live in the Amazon?’

The next layer down refers to what we will call the concepts of geography. There are four broad concepts identified in the geography national curriculum, used as headings for the attainment targets at both key stages 1 and 2: ‘locational knowledge’, ‘place knowledge’, ‘human and physical geography’ and ‘geographical skills and fieldwork’. These are identified in the national curriculum as components to be studied and are the pillars of geography. They are what make geography, geography. Each topic or unit will have aspects of these four broad concepts.

For example, if we were creating a topic for a KS2 class about the Amazon River, we would weave locational knowledge into the unit by using various types of maps to locate the continent, country then river. We would explore its relation to the other continents, countries and the equator etc. Depending on the age of the pupils, we may look at the lines of longitude and latitude the river falls on. We would employ our place knowledge by exploring what it is like to live near the Amazon River. How is the region similar and different to our home? What are the buildings like? Where are the major settlements? We might explore what jobs people have and what the people of the area produce and export. This would rely on our human geography. Using maps and computer-based mapping systems such as Google Earth, we may begin to predict weather, climate, and investigate what sort of vegetation may grow there. This would rely on our physical geography. We may investigate what sort of crops are grown near the river combining our human and physical geography. Depending on whether the substantive content had been taught in a previous unit, we may teach or retrieve information about how rivers are formed. Finally, to underpin all this research, we would be continuously employing geographical skills and fieldwork to collect, analyse, and present our data.

Why might we want to weave these four concepts together, as in the example above? If we look at the aims of the geography national curriculum below, we can see that it is important for children to develop contextual knowledge about the places they study. They do this by leaning on both human and physical geography and how they interact and affect each other. We cannot understand a place and what it might be like without looking at both aspects - human and physical geography. They are interdependent - one effects the other. The variations in climate, physical geography and natural resources across the globe have directly influenced human settlement patterns.

Therefore, to encourage a richer, deeper exploration of a place, we could combine sections of attainment targets to create a more well-rounded exploration of places.

Referring again to the layers diagram above, we will call the third layer (with ‘settlement’ and ‘trade’ named in the example), threads. These threads are chosen by the school and/or scheme and are woven through our geography curriculum, some appearing in more units than others. Children could make progress within these threads in a hierarchical manner (incrementally build their knowledge and understanding), as well as in a mastery approach (developing and building a stronger schema each time they meet a thread in a new context).

For example, a child may meet the idea of ‘settlement' in EYFS when they create small world towns and train tracks or when they take a walk around their local area noticing and naming features. In Year 1, they may delve further into a local area study and take a wider look at where they live, investigate any significant local features and notice and name the human and physical features. In Year 2, a child may encounter a settlement in a non-EU country and begin to compare it to their own locality. In LKS2, a child may encounter settlements when they study a region of an EU country and compare it with their own. And finally, in UKS2, a child may encounter settlement again when they look at a region in North or South America and possibly their own local area again through a different lens. These planned opportunities allow the idea of settlement to become a rich schema, seen from multiple views, multiple places and where possible, some places that are visited more than once through

Revisiting the same region or country in a curriculum is not necessarily to be avoided. In fact, it may be beneficial to explore fewer places in greater depth than many places at a superficial level. After all, we are aiming for rich schema development and trying to avoid creating a single lens view of a place.

It may be beneficial to explore fewer places in greater depth than many places at a superficial level. After all, we are aiming for rich schema development and trying to avoid creating a single lens view of a place.

An example could be a KS1 study of a Brazilian village and what it may be like to live there, investigating settlements, jobs and weather etc. Returning to the study of Brazil in LKS2, pupils might explore the Amazon River whilst learning about rivers. And finally, an UKS2 unit might investigate Brazilian land use, natural resources and a case study of coffee farming utilising knowledge of climate, vegetation belts, trade and fairtrade. 

Indeed, this very point was made in Ofsted’s geography subject report: Getting our bearings.

In each geography topic, unit or project, our planning and teaching should make clear links to other related learning, to deepen it and to build schema, to prevent learning sitting in isolation.

How might we track these concepts and threads through our curriculum so that our teachers and then children are aware of the prior learning? Possibly by using a progression document like the one above.

Geography progression map

Here, the four major concepts of geography are broken down into component threads. Tracking where these appear across the year groups and what learning objectives are encountered could be a valuable exercise for staff. This is not an exhaustive list, and schools may have other chosen threads they might wish to track.

When all staff can see where a concept or thread has been taught previously, they are enabled to make strong curriculum links, activating prior knowledge and thus creating a firm landing and sticking place for new learning. For example, drawing children’s attention to the fact that they worked with maps in their Year 2 project about Melbourne and made simple symbols for features of the area on a map will help reactive knowledge about symbols and keys. This will link with the new learning in Year 3 about particular OS symbols on a map of the local area. It will strengthen the schema around maps and symbols.

Drawing children’s attention to their learning about tectonic plates in the Year 4 Earthquake unit, for example, will reactive this learning and help the new Year 5 learning about mountains and volcanoes stick. Completing a retrieval activity about tectonic plates, what they are and what happens when there is friction, paves the way for learning about how mountains are formed.

This point was made as one of the recommendations in Ofsted’s geography subject report: Getting our bearings

Curriculum

Schools should:

Making these explicit links between units of work is one way we can help children make progress in geography, developing their schema and strengthening learning. Linking the four major concepts of geography in each unit of work ensures that the teaching is deeper. It avoids the teaching of merely surface level detail and paves the way for a more analytical approach to understanding places, our world and how we affect things and are affected by them.

What if your school has bought a scheme of work? How might you utilise this approach if you are already using a scheme. Here, I will refer to Ofsted’s inspection handbook:-

Paragraph 241 states, ‘Inspectors will consider how well the curriculum developed or adopted by the school is taught and assessed in order to support pupils to build their knowledge and to apply that knowledge as skills.’

The important point here is the extent to which the scheme of work has been adapted to make sure that it is suitable for the particular school context. In adopting and/or adapting a scheme, a school will want to ensure that the content is well suited to its context. The school will also want to ensure that there are suitable threads and concepts that build over time, allowing pupils to build learning and make progress.

In summary, here are my top tips for developing a connected primary geography curriculum that enables progress and promotes depth in learning:

• Utilise learning from all four concepts of geography in each unit of work: ‘locational knowledge’, ‘place knowledge’, ‘human and physical geography’ and ‘geographical skills and fieldwork’.
• Contextualise human and physical geography by including it in the study of places: What are the human and physical features of this place? How do human and physical processes affect this place?
• Revisit places studied previously, with a different focus to avoid single lens viewpoints and to deepen learning.
• Think about creating a progression map so all staff can track and then support pupils to retrieve prior learning within the concepts and threads thus building rich schemas.
• Adapt your existing curriculum or scheme to make sure it is right for your school community, for example, in the places studied and the lenses used to study these places.

Looking to inject a little festive fun into your fluency sessions this month?

If you are, you’ve come to the right place!

This compilation of challenges has the potential to generate plenty of mathematical discussion in your classroom.

The challenge below presents an opportunity to explore equality and to rehearse number bonds and addition and subtraction strategies; all of which are vital building blocks for learning yet to come.

Begin with curiosity

What can you see?  What do you notice?

Children may comment on the number of boxes on each sleigh or their arrangement. They may notice the possibility of using a familiar bond to 10. Do children notice that for two of the sleighs, there are multiple possibilities?

Valuing each contribution, as children share in their own words, is important. We can inject more accurate mathematical language later once children’s initial thoughts have been shared and listened to by the class.

Scaffold for discussion, reasoning and problem-solving

Following this initial discussion, children could work in teams to talk through possibilities and strategies to solve the problem. Arming children with pens, paper, sticky notes, useful manipulatives and simple sentence frames could provide a scaffold on which to build ideas. Sentence frames could include:

I have noticed…

If… then…

For the middle sleigh:

I have noticed that the boxes on the front total 15.

If one of the boxes at the back had 3 toys inside, then the other box would need 12 toys to equal 15.

I have noticed a pattern. The boxes could contain 1 and 14 toys, 2 and 13 toys, 3 and 12 toys…

For the final sleigh:

I have noticed that the empty box at the front needs to contain one more toy than the total toys put in the two empty boxes at the back. This is because 12 and 11 have a difference of one.

Suggestions for additional scaffolding

Begin with curiosity

What can you see?  What do you notice?

Children might see products from familiar times tables and notice that they are not in their usual order. They might spot prime and square numbers and spot that some numbers appear more than once.

Before attempting to solve the problem, it’s crucial that children understand the design of the table – how the factors in the green row and column are linked to the corresponding products in the table.

Scaffold for discussion, reasoning and problem-solving

Following this initial discussion, children could work in teams to talk through possibilities and strategies to solve the problem. A large version of the grid, a pencil, rubber, and a beadstring could support in solving this problem.

Where times tables are not known, a beadstring would be a useful manipulative. For example, children could drag across 40 beads and use them to identify the possible factors – equal groupings of 2, 5, 8 or 10 (within the factors allowed in the problem). Sentence frames could include:

I have noticed…

It couldn’t be…

It could be…

If… then…

For example:

I have noticed that the fully blue column contains four multiples of 4. The factor at the top of the column could be 4. It couldn’t be 2 because 2 x 18 = 36 and 18 isn’t allowed.

I have noticed a square number – 100. If 10 goes at the top of the column for 100, then the factor at the end of the horizontal blue row must be 2 because 10 x 2 = 20.

Suggestions for additional scaffolding

Begin with curiosity

What can you see?  What do you notice?

Children might see that each side of the large triangle has 3 little triangles along it. They might notice that each part is a number of tenths and comment that some are written in words, some as decimals and some as fractions.

It is important at this point that children understand how to translate between them, e.g., that 3 tenths could also be written as 0.3 or 3/10.

Scaffold for discussion, reasoning and problem-solving

Following this initial discussion, children could work in teams to talk through possibilities and strategies to solve the problem. Place value counters (tenths / 0.1 counters) would be a handy manipulative for working out how to lay out the groups so that they meet the parameters in the question.

Sentence frames could include:

I have noticed…

If… then…

I have noticed that the numbers are consecutive. They go up in tenths from 0.3 to 0.8.

If we use 0.8, 0.7 and 0.6 along one side then we won’t have enough tenths to make the other sides equal.

If confident with the addition and number facts required, sticky notes could support a ‘try then improve’ approach.

Suggestions for additional scaffolding

Articulating strategies and sharing solutions

It is worth considering how children will share their problem-solving approaches and solutions.

Options could include:

• A classroom walk-around to view the solutions of other groups. One member of the group could remain at their table to share strategies with ‘visiting’ children.
• Listing 3 key points from their exploration for a spokesperson to share with the class
• Pairing up groups to share their strategies and solutions with each other
• Producing a team poster to show the process and final outcomes
• Writing a set of ‘how to’ instructions for how to solve a similar problem in the future

Evaluating strategies and considering metacognition

As exemplified through case studies in the OEC report, focusing on process and efficiency, rather than simply getting the right answer, can develop children’s mathematical confidence, allowing them to talk their ideas through and build understanding of key concepts.

Reflection points to consider:

• When did things get challenging?
• What helped if you got stuck?
• What did you notice that helped you to decide on a strategy?
• Did your group try more than one strategy? Which one worked best in this case and why?
• How did your feelings change during the task?
• Did you have an ‘a-ha’ moment? When was it?
• What might you do differently next time?

The HFL Education Annual Maths Challenges are taking place in spring and summer 2025, with:

Challenges are hosted online for the heats and the final so your teams of four children can join in from the comfort of their own school.