Tricky words
Your child can spell tricky words that do not follow the rules — like said, was and the. They can also spell all seven days of the week.
In curriculum terms
Spell common exception words from memory that do not follow regular phonic patterns, including the days of the week
Ages are typical, not deadlines — follow your child’s pace. How to help at home →
How to tell they’ve got it
Tick these off as you see them — no test required.
🖨 Print this page to keep the checklist — it prints beautifully.
Try this together
Can your child spell tricky everyday words like "said," "were," "come," and the days of the week from memory without needing to sound them out?
Where this sits on the map
Stuck here? Check the skills it builds on first. Confident? Here’s what it unlocks.
solid = must come firstdashed = helps
Curriculum alignment
Where this fits in the official school curriculum — our best automated guess, not yet checked by a person.
Show candidate curriculum codes · 3 ACARA · 2 NSW · 3 VIC
Australian Curriculum v9 candidate
spell one- and two-syllable words with common letter patterns
recognise and know how to write most high-frequency words including some homophones
use phoneme–grapheme (sound–letter) relationships and less common letter patterns to spell words
NSW syllabus codes & stages only
Victorian Curriculum 2.0 codes & levels only
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.