Essex Research School at Lyons Hall Primary is in the midst of trialling a spelling programme in secondary classrooms. The programme has already been successfully delivered in Key Stage 2 classrooms where it has developed children’s confidence when spelling, and had a significant impact on spelling and writing outcomes at the end of Key Stage 2.
The Spell It Like It Is pilot was recently launched through the EEF’s Effective Secondary Early Stage Programme Development. (ESPD) programme. The aim is to explore whether the explicit teaching of the spelling process, modelling of spelling consciousness, and the application of key spelling knowledge (including etymology, root words, prefixes and suffixes) impacts the accuracy of spelling and pupil confidence when writing in Key Stage 3. As part of the launch, we delivered an SLT briefing and offered a full day of training for participating English and humanities teachers. The programme commenced in schools in the week beginning 19 January 2026 and will run until the end of May 2026.
Spelling Programme Logo
The pilot is being trialled across six secondary schools in the Essex and eastern region with a deliberate focus on embedding spelling instruction into everyday lessons rather than treating it as an additional intervention. This means spelling is taught alongside curriculum content, linked to disciplinary vocabulary that pupils are expected to spell, and deliberately planned into teaching sequences.
‘Spell It Like It Is’ Programme Designers Rachel Pritchard and Emma Bradshaw delivering the training day at Lyons Hall Primary School, 13 Jan 2026.
Why this matters in Key Stage 3
By the time pupils reach secondary school, spelling is often quietly written off. Many teachers will recognise the pattern: the same errors appear again and again, even after years of correction. Feedback is given, spellings are highlighted, yet very little seems to stick. Over time, spelling can start to feel like a fixed trait: something pupils either ‘can’ or ‘can’t’ do rather than a skill that can be developed.
In Key Stage 3, this is particularly noticeable. English and humanities teachers are rightly focused on helping pupils explore ideas, interpretations and subject knowledge. Spelling often sits in the background, dealt with through proofreading or marking rather than explicit teaching. The assumption is often that pupils should already know how to spell.
But the EEF’s literacy guidance for secondary schools is clear: learning about language doesn’t stop at primary school. Pupils continue to benefit from explicit teaching of vocabulary and spelling, especially as texts and subject knowledge become more complex. When pupils struggle with spelling, writing becomes harder. They may avoid ambitious vocabulary, simplify their sentences, or get stuck mid-thought. For some pupils this becomes a real barrier to success.
‘How Spell It Like It Is’ works
At the heart of the programme is the principle that spelling should be taught explicitly and systematically. Pupils do not have to absorb patterns by chance; instead, the structure of language is made visible. English is a complex language; despite only having 44 sounds (phonemes) there are approximately 250 ways to write those sounds (graphemes). Therefore, teaching pupils the thinking behind which letters to choose when spelling a word, is fundamental to the programme and pupils’ success when spelling.
This is particularly important for disciplinary vocabulary. Recommendation 1 in the EEF’s Secondary literacy guidance highlights the need to teach subject-specific words explicitly, recognising that each discipline uses language in its own way. In humanities, pupils encounter words such as civilisation, economy and industrialisation. In English, increasingly sophisticated literary and analytical terms are introduced. When pupils are unsure how to spell these words, they often avoid using them thus limiting the precision and richness of their writing.
EEF Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools Rec. 1
Traditional approaches: weekly spelling lists or correcting errors after the fact, do little to help pupils understand word structure. Spell It Like It Is treats spelling as part of vocabulary instruction. Pupils learn to see spelling as logical rather than arbitrary. They develop their own spelling consciousness, learn how to apply this to the spelling process when writing, and develop their understanding of how words are built. All this strengthens both accuracy and understanding when spelling.
The programme also builds on the work of Professor Dylan Wiliam around formative assessment; it encourages pupils to teach and learn from each other, and to be owners of their own learning through deciding how best to learn words they find ‘tricky’ to spell and recording this in their own spelling log.
Early implementation and impact
Although the pilot is still in its first few weeks, early indications are promising. In English lessons, teachers have used shared roots of words to link spelling and meaning, e.g. exploring how sign, signal and significance are connected helps pupils spell more accurately while deepening understanding. In history and geography, complex subject terminology has become a teaching opportunity. Instead of expecting pupils to memorise terms such as industrialisation, teachers unpack how the word is constructed and why it is spelled that way.
Teachers involved in the pilot have noted a shift in classroom practice. Pupils are beginning to see spelling as logical and learnable which is helping build confidence and encouraging them to use more ambitious words in their writing.
The programme is also prompting professional reflection. Many secondary teachers were never taught spelling in this way themselves. Engaging with Spell It Like It Is is helping them build a stronger understanding of spelling structures, and to develop their own spelling consciousness, enabling them to give clearer explanations and more effective responses to pupils’ misconceptions.
Although the programme is still at an early stage, it is already providing useful insights. Embedding spelling instruction within lessons is feasible, manageable, and can support both pupils’ use of disciplinary vocabulary and their confidence as writers.
We look forward to sharing more formal findings at the end of the trial in May. In the meantime, if you are interested in this approach or want to explore how spelling can support disciplinary literacy at Key Stage 3, please get in touch. Sharing ideas and reflections is a key part of the work, and we are happy to discuss what we are learning as the pilot develops.
