Years 5-6 Statutory Words Set 1

ACCOMMODATE has a double C and a double M, and the reason so many people misspell it is simple: they remember that something doubles, and then double only one of the two. The word needs both, every time.

The Years 5-6 statutory list from the DfE is the most demanding of the primary spelling lists, full of long words with doubled consonants, unusual vowel pairs and roots from other languages. This first set is dominated by double letters — the single most common source of error in upper Key Stage 2 spelling. The word search gathers all fifteen so children practise locating exactly where each word doubles. (US families: these match the words children meet at the same age in fourth and fifth grade vocabulary, often from the same Latin and Greek roots.)

ACCOMMODATE · ACCOMPANY · ACCORDING · ACHIEVE · AGGRESSIVE · AMATEUR · ANCIENT · APPARENT · APPRECIATE · ATTACHED · AVAILABLE · AVERAGE · AWKWARD · BARGAIN · BRUISE

The double-letter problem

Almost every word in this set carries a doubled consonant, and the difficulty is rarely whether a letter doubles — it is which one, and where. ACCOMMODATE doubles both C and M. ACCOMPANY doubles C only. ACCORDING doubles C only. AGGRESSIVE doubles G and S. APPARENT doubles P only. APPRECIATE doubles P and E (ATE at the end). ATTACHED doubles T. The lesson to give children is direct: long words with doubled letters reward exact looking. Every doubled position is a separate decision; getting one right doesn’t tell you the others.

A few words also rely on patterns from earlier puzzles. AVAILABLE is an -able word from S65 (AVAIL is a word — “to avail oneself” — so -able wins). APPRECIATE has the soft C from B10 (C before I). ANCIENT has the same -cient ending that previews -tial/-cial from S66. AMATEUR is a French loanword, like BUREAU and PLATEAU and BEAUTIFUL from B05 — the EUR ending is from old French. BRUISE has a silent E and an OO-saying-IS hiding inside. Year 5-6 vocabulary doesn’t introduce many new tricks; it stress-tests the ones Series A taught.

Five to pin down precisely

1. ACCOMMODATE has two pairs. Find it. Have your child circle the double C, then circle the double M. Two doublings, both essential. Memory hook: “ACCOMMODATE can ACCOMMODATE two doubles.” A word that names what it does.
2. ACCOMPANY, ACCORDING, ACHIEVE form a starter family. All three begin with AC + a vowel + (single or double consonant). Look at each one and ask your child which doubles. ACCOMPANY (CC), ACCORDING (CC), ACHIEVE (single C). The hard part is remembering which is which — and that’s the case for systematic exposure.
3. AGGRESSIVE doubles G and S. Look at it letter by letter and have your child point at both pairs. Two doublings, both consonants. The word means forceful behaviour — the spelling is forceful too.
4. AVAILABLE is an S65 -able word. AVAIL is a real (if rare) English word, so the suffix is -able, not -ible. The rule from a Series A puzzle still predicts a Year 6 spelling. Old toolkit, new vocabulary.
5. BRUISE has an unusual OO sound. Cover the I and read BRUSE (rhymes with FUSE). With the I, it says “brooz”. The UI spelling shows up in JUICE, FRUIT, CRUISE — a small French-rooted family worth meeting as a closed group.

Teaching the set

As a doubling-decision starter. Five candidate words on the board with the doubled letter as a question: ACOMMODATE or ACCOMMODATE? APPRECIATE or APRECIATE? AGRESSIVE or AGGRESSIVE? The class votes on each. Then a twist: which is the only word in the set with no doubled letter at all? (ACHIEVE — single C, single E, no doubling. Children love spotting the exception.)

As a rule-back-to-Series-A pair task. Pairs find every word in the grid that follows a rule from Series A: AVAILABLE (-able from S65), APPRECIATE (soft C from B10), ANCIENT (-cient from the S66 family), BARGAIN (-AIN ending from S11), BRUISE (UI = “oo” from the French family). The exercise rebuilds the system in front of children who are now using Year 6 vocabulary.

One-to-one at home. For home educators, take this set into real writing. This week, your child writes a short report on something they have learned recently — a piece of HISTORY, a science EXPERIMENT, a book they ENJOYED. The brief: use at least four words from this grid, deliberately. ACCORDING to my book, the AVERAGE octopus has nine brains. Real writing with real target vocabulary builds long-term spelling memory the way no worksheet can.

What comes next

• Years 5-6 Statutory Words Set 2 — the COMM family and the SC trap
• Years 3-4 Statutory Words Set 7 — the previous set
• All spelling word searches — the full Series A, B and C collection

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