Appendix 1 of the National Curriculum for English sets out the expectations for spelling which should be taught in primary school. For KS2, this includes examples of words with spelling patterns, spelling exceptions and statutory word-lists. In relation to the word lists, the documentation confidently asserts:
Some of the listed words may be thought of as quite challenging, but the 100 words in each list can easily be taught within the four years of key stage 2 alongside other words that teachers consider appropriate.
In reality, many KS2 teachers would agree that teaching the spelling content contained in Appendix 1 can be difficult. Ensuring pupils retain their knowledge of recently learnt spellings can be harder still. Here are five tried and tested techniques which will improve KS2 spelling skills and help newly learnt spellings stick.