Learning Map

Homophones

Distinguish and correctly spell common homophones and near-homophones encountered at Y3-4 level (e.g., accept/except, affect/effect, brake/break, grate/great), including using the /eɪ/ sound spelt ei, eigh, or ey

How to tell they’ve got it

Tick these off as you see them — no test required.

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Try this together

When your child writes, do they use the right spelling for words that sound the same but mean different things — like "brake" (on a bike) and "break" (snap something)?

Where this sits on the map

Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.

Builds on
Alternative Spellings for Soundsages 6–9Y3-4 homophones build on Y2 alternative spellings/homophones
Phonics Vocabularyages 4–7Distinguishing homophones requires knowing 'homophone' as a named category
Reading High-Frequency Words by Sightages 5–8Exception word knowledge supports homophone discrimination
Homophonesthis skill · ages 7–9
Unlocks
Homophones (age 9+)ages 9–10Y5-6 homophones (affect/effect, practice/practise) build on the Y3-4 homophone programme

solid = must come firstdashed = helps

Curriculum alignment

Candidate matches to official curriculum codes — machine-suggested, unreviewed (v0.1).

Show candidate curriculum codes · 3 ACARA · 2 NSW · 3 VIC

Australian Curriculum v9 candidate

AC9E3LY12medium confidenceYear 3 · Literacy

recognise and know how to write most high-frequency words including some homophones

AC9E3LY11low confidenceYear 3 · Literacy

use phoneme–grapheme (sound–letter) relationships and less common letter patterns to spell words

AC9E1LY09low confidenceYear 1 · Literacy

segment words into separate phonemes (sounds) including consonant blends or clusters at the beginnings and ends of words (phonological awareness)

NSW syllabus codes & stages only

EN2-SPELL-01low confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 2
EN1-SPELL-01low confidenceEnglish K-10 · Stage 1

Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only

VC2E4LY05medium confidenceEnglish · Level 4 · Literacy strand
VC2E3LY06medium confidenceEnglish · Level 3 · Literacy strand
VC2E3LY05medium confidenceEnglish · Level 3 · Literacy strand

These are candidate alignments generated by semantic matching — machine-suggested and unreviewed (v0.1), not official or verified mappings. For official curriculum content see australiancurriculum.edu.au, curriculum.nsw.edu.au and f10.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Don’t rely on them for registration or compliance purposes.

Nearby on the map

All Spelling & Word Study skills →