The National Curriculum for England specifies two statutory word lists — one for Years 3 and 4, and one for Years 5 and 6. Together they contain 200 words that all primary school children in England are expected to be able to spell by the end of Key Stage 2. These aren't suggestions — they appear in the curriculum because they are among the most commonly used words in written English that cannot easily be decoded using phonics rules alone.
Why these words are hard
Most of the 200 words contain irregular spellings that can't be worked out from sound alone. Words like accommodate, necessary, embarrass and conscience follow patterns that even adults find tricky. The lists are designed to ensure that children have explicit teaching and practice of these words rather than hoping they'll pick them up through reading.
The Year 3 and 4 list (100 words)
The Year 3/4 list contains words like: accident, actually, address, appear, arrive, believe, bicycle, breath, build, busy, calendar, caught, centre, certain, circle, complete, consider, continue, decide, describe, different, difficult, disappear, early, earth, eight, enough, exercise, experience, extreme, famous, favourite, February, forward, fruit, grammar, group, guard, guide, heard, heart, height, history, imagine, increase, important, interest, island, knowledge, learn, length, library, material, medicine, mention, minute, natural, naughty, notice, occasion, often, opposite, ordinary, particular, peculiar, perhaps, popular, position, possess, possible, pressure, probably, promise, purpose, quarter, question, recent, regular, reign, remember, sentence, separate, special, straight, strange, strength, suppose, surprise, therefore, though, thought, through, various, weight, woman, women.
The Year 5 and 6 list (100 words)
The Year 5/6 list is more challenging and includes words frequently needed in formal writing: accommodate, accompany, aggressive, amateur, ancient, apparent, appreciate, attached, available, average, awkward, bargain, bruise, category, cemetery, committee, communicate, community, competition, conscience, conscious, controversy, convenience, correspond, criticise, curiosity, definite, desperate, determined, develop, dictionary, disastrous, embarrass, environment, equip, especially, exaggerate, excellent, existence, explanation, familiar, foreign, forty, frequently, government, guarantee, harass, hindrance, identity, immediate, immediately, individual, interfere, interrupt, language, leisure, lightning, marvellous, mischievous, muscle, necessary, neighbour, nuisance, occupy, occur, opportunity, parliament, persuade, physical, prejudice, privilege, profession, programme, pronunciation, queue, recognise, recommend, relevant, restaurant, rhyme, rhythm, sacrifice, secretary, shoulder, signature, sincere, soldier, stomach, sufficient, suggest, symbol, system, temperature, thorough, twelfth, variety, vegetable, vehicle, yacht.
How to practise them effectively
Research on spelling acquisition suggests that distributed practice — a little bit each day — is significantly more effective than massed practice (long sessions less frequently). The most effective strategies include:
- Look, cover, write, check — one of the oldest but most evidence-based approaches
- Meaning-based practice — using the word in a sentence rather than just copying it
- Pattern recognition — grouping words with similar structures (e.g. words ending in -tion, -ious)
- Spaced repetition — revisiting words at increasing intervals
The Pocket Money Game uses all 200 statutory words across its spelling levels, with words introduced at the right year group and reinforced through spaced repetition. Children who get a word wrong the first time have it added to their Tricky Words list, where it reappears until they've answered it correctly twice in a row.
What happens at the end of KS2
Children are not formally tested on the statutory word lists at KS2 — there's no separate spelling SAT. Instead, spelling is assessed within writing tasks in the Year 6 SATs, and teachers make holistic judgements about spelling ability throughout the year. However, children who know the 200 statutory words have a significant advantage in any written work, as these words appear frequently across all subjects.
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