Articles on: Literacy

What to do when students are working above their year level? How do I cater for strong spellers?

FAQ: Students working above PLD age-appropriate levels? How do we cater for my strong spellers and those achieving high scores in subsequent stages?

Step 1: Consider the PLD implementation process.

When contemplating whether to accelerate a student, PLD recommends that teachers DO NOT over-accelerate students. Please consider the following:

Question 1: Are teachers just teaching the common errors in a stage, and then moving students up? If this is the case, within a semester, students can progress through the 16 placement test concepts and progress up to the next stage. Keep in mind that:

Stages 1, 2 and 3 occur over 4 school terms and hence around 36 weeks of teaching.
Stages 4, 5 and 6 occur over 5 school terms and hence around 45 weeks of teaching.
Here are the Teaching Sequence Overviews: https://pld-literacy.org/plds-structured-synthetic-phonics-teaching-overview/

Also, keep in mind that the placement tests are designed to be relatively short and efficient to administer. Stages 2-6 only present 16 concepts, hence around a third of the concepts within a stage. So even if students score highly on a placement test, there is still likely much more content to present.

Step 2: Consider how to add a challenge to the existing stage, without creating another group, and over-accelerating students, which will cause problems. E.g. By Year 5 some students will have completed the full PLD sequence.

Make sure the focus is not just on spelling, but on word study.

**Transfer to extended writing (dictation and self-generated). **Even though the student is achieving high scores in placement screens and assessments at a reading and single-word spelling level, it is highly unlikely they are consistently transferring with high accuracy to extended writing.

Evidence beyond the placement test.** **The spelling placement screens are designed to be quick diagnostic assessments, hence they do not test every phonic concept within every stage (apart from Stage 1), so the 85% move-forward recommendation should be carefully considered before accelerating students scoring significantly above year-level.

Meaning & Morphology **Prior to accelerating students, ensure there is an understanding of word meanings and a strong ability to apply morphology (prefixes, suffixes and base word identification). **There is little benefit for students if they can spell the words but do not know what they mean.

The Benefits of the Teaching Sequence Manuals: PLD cautions against the over-acceleration of students. Too often, good spellers are placed on high-level lists (e.g. a Year 3 student being placed on Stage 5/upper primary lists, their knowledge of the words is not developed).

In the majority of these circumstances, students will benefit working through the teaching sequences (as per the relevant teaching sequence manual) as the scope is broader than just attending to the gaps in phonic knowledge denoted by the spelling placement screens.

Stages 1, 2 and 3 have 4 terms of teaching outlined int he manauls (even though only 16 concepts are contained within the placement test).
Stages 4, 5 and 6 have 5 terms of teaching outlined int he manauls (even though only 16 concepts are contained within the placement test).

Since an overarching goal of spelling is to apply sophisticated language and vocabulary to self-generated writing, it is worthwhile for strong spellers to "slow down" and engage in word study (morphology) rather than accelerate rapidly through PLD's stages.

In the unlikely event the student is consistently and accurately transferring their new spelling knowledge to extended writing and oral language tasks, then there would be justification for pushing them forward. Before this happens, teachers could use the checklist provided in the Teaching Sequence Manuals at the end of each school year outline to ensure there are no gaps, and the listed point have been considered.

Beyond Stage 6 what opportunities does PLD provide? Strong spellers moving beyond Stage 6 https://support.pld-literacy.org/en-au/article/strong-spellers-moving-beyond-stage-6-and-those-with-high-scores-in-stages-5-6-g7bxbp/

PLD recommends that if grappling with this issue, please email a copy of your tracking sheets through the PLD. mail@pld-literacy.org

Updated on: 15/05/2026

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