What is Spellzone?
Spellzone is an online resource that unlocks the mystery of English spelling. It has three main components: The Spelling Ability Test, a complete spelling course and 1000's of word lists. The Spelling Ability Test provides students with baseline scores and individual learning pathways. Automatic retesting keeps them on track with little intervention. The phonics-based spelling course covers all of the English spelling rules. Teaching includes definitions, sentence context and learning tips. Spellzone also provides learning analytics for teachers to keep track of their students' progress. Teachers can create their own subject-specific word lists or use the lists preloaded on Spellzone.
Recommended Usage
20 - 30 minutes
Screenshots
Educational Impact
HQ Location: United Kingdom Founded: 2001 | |
5-7, 8-10, 11-13, 14-16, 17-18, 19+ | |
![]() | English |
![]() | Robust features |
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![]() | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Spellzone is a browser-based on-line resource and can be used on any internet connected PC, laptop or mobile device. There is nothing to download or install. For best performance, we recommend the Google Chrome browser. Students and staff require usernames and passwords to access Spellzone. Students can be quickly added manually, by .csv upload or by Wonde Sync. |
![]() | Student and staff logins can be created immediately after sign up. |
![]() | ![]() ![]() Spellzone is easy for students to navigate independently. We provide free on-line training for teachers. Step-by-step guides and a guide for parents are also available to download. |
![]() | ![]() ![]() ![]() We provide free online training sessions for schools during which we run through all of the features and answer any questions. |
![]() | ![]() Anyone can create the account. Students can access Spellzone on home computers and mobile devices. |
Spellzone PricingPricing Plans Free Trial Paid Subscription Spellzone pricing starts from £0.33 / per-pupil Please contact us for a quote based on your requirements. |
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Spellzone Reviews
from 16 Verified Reviews
User rating
Country
Emma
SEN Teacher
Used Spellzone weekly for 3-4 years
Jan 2023
Students often enjoy the games and activities. It helps them to make measurable progress. They can use the resource at school and at home.
Emma found Spellzone:
- Moderately reduces teacher workload“The children have a personalised programme suited to address their spelling gaps, which saves me time and makes it easier to provide targeted support to individuals.”
- Moderately reduces attainment gap“Some students make good gains in their spelling knowledge from the baseline test to the final test.”
- Significantly provides school data
- Moderately improves attainment
- Moderately builds student knowledge

Kelly Schweizer
Literacy Co-Ordinator
Used Spellzone weekly for 1-2 years
Jan 2023
Useful but some features are too aimed at primary schools for our settings
Kelly Schweizer found Spellzone:
- Moderately reduces teacher workload“Marks for teachers”
- Slightly reduces attainment gap
- Slightly provides school data
- Moderately improves attainment
- Significantly builds student knowledge“Useful for curriculum lists”

Kat
Intervention Coordinator
Used Spellzone daily for 1-2 years
Dec 2022
spellzone allows students to work independently at home, it's fairly interactive, students seem to like it, we also use it for EAL students and widening their vocabulary range; it provides great feedback for teachers, students and parents, students' progress can be easily monitored. The price is reasonable.
Kat found Spellzone:
- Slightly reduces teacher workload“spellzone can be used independently at home by students, can be set as homework”
- Slightly reduces attainment gap“it's hard to say, its the first year we are using Spellzone regularly and looking closely at data”
- Significantly provides school data“we use SpZone initial assessment result combined with Spelling test score to identify students in need of spelling intervention”
- Slightly improves attainment“not yet”
- Slightly builds student knowledge“Some students, especially the weaker ones find accessing spellzone independently difficult. We see better impact on more able students with specific weakness in spelling.”

Terrie Penrose-Toms
Restart Room Coordinator
Used Spellzone daily for 5 years+
Nov 2022
A fantastic learning tool with brilliant resources and the Highest level of support possible
Terrie Penrose-Toms found Spellzone:
- Significantly reduces teacher workload“Provides an automated spelling test system”
- Significantly reduces attainment gap“Students often increase their standardised scores by up to 18 months”
- Significantly provides school data“Regularly used to deliver data to Functional skills meetings ref Literacy attainment”
- Significantly improves attainment“Helps students raise their level of spelling therefore raises their overall Literacy standards in lessons”
- Significantly builds student knowledge“The topics and the phonics rules, plus choice of Vocabulary are exceptionally educational. They introduce or consolidate rules and new Vocabulary”

A Kenton
Head of School and Spelling Lead for the MAT
Used Spellzone weekly for 3-4 years
Nov 2022
Fantastic customer service, children engaged and responsive changes on request to service
A Kenton found Spellzone:
- Significantly reduces teacher workload“Able to set spelling practice tasks in seconds”
- Moderately reduces attainment gap“One pupil used spellzone daily last year and closed attainment gap between himself and his peers to the point that he placed in Trust Spelling Bee!”
- Slightly provides school data
- Significantly improves attainment“See comment above about closed attainment gap”
- Moderately builds student knowledge

Frances Smith
Teacher in Charge
Used Spellzone daily for 3-4 years
Oct 2022
Sometimes the coursework requires a lot of reading, without the option to hear someone read the questions to them and I think this turns them off.
Frances Smith found Spellzone:
- Significantly reduces teacher workload“You can often find a spelling list created either by spellzone or by another teacher, rather than making your own. Various Phonics lists are available and accessible on the site as well as National Curriculum guides and lists.”
- Significantly reduces attainment gap“The games help encourage those children who would not otherwise engage with spelling tests to participate.”
- Significantly provides school data“Helps school monitor spelling ability”
- Significantly improves attainment“Some have increased score by 22% over a year”
- Significantly builds student knowledge“I tend to use spellzone to reinforce children's knowledge, not necessarily to teach”

Aaron Warren
English Co-ordinator and Year 5 Teacher
Used Spellzone weekly for 1-2 years
Sep 2022
There are some good features; however, there are also some aspects of it that could be improved. Some of the children at our school can get bored with the games and I would encourage Spellzone to look at Sumdog as that has a brilliant gaming platform, but doesn't have some of the excellent features that Spellzone has.
Aaron Warren found Spellzone:
- Significantly reduces teacher workload“It's really quick to generate a list of spellings and assign the children tasks.”
- Does not significantly reduce attainment gap“I like the idea of the course pathway but it's not interactive enough for children to use. There's a lot of reading involved, whilst I think it should be more game-based and interactive for the children to navigate through. The CP is a huge advantage to Spellzone but I think the execution of it isn't quite right. We now use spellzone to create lists for our children and set tasks based on their spelling patterns from their NGST spelling test. It works quite well for that.”
- Slightly provides school data“The spelling tests can be quite helpful to show progress but we use NGST to more accurately show how children are spelling certain patterns.”
- Does not significantly improve attainment“Please see previous comments.”
- Does not significantly build student knowledge“It is limited due to the way the CP works. I like the explanation of the spelling rules and this can be useful when introducing a pattern to the class. I don't feel the CP is engaging enough for the children to learn from - even though it has good content. I feel it is more for teachers than for students.”

Monica Monserrat Lopez Cortes
Teacher
Used Spellzone weekly for 7–12 months
Sep 2022
I would like to see grammar activities
Monica Monserrat Lopez Cortes found Spellzone:
- Significantly reduces teacher workload“It helps me to improve students' pronunciation and motivate them to increase their vocabulary by having fun playing games.”
- Moderately reduces attainment gap“Students understand better in a short time.”
- Moderately provides school data“Parents like the idea school provides new tools to students to learn.”
- Moderately improves attainment“students feel more confidence”
- Significantly builds student knowledge“SS get better grades”

cd. Maria Jose Castro
General Subprincipal and English supervisor
Used Spellzone daily for 1-2 years
Sep 2022
so far they´re always there when we need them to assist us, price is good and teachers are happy
cd. Maria Jose Castro found Spellzone:
- Significantly reduces teacher workload“on diferent topics of investigation, ludic games and spelling , vocabulary”
- Significantly reduces attainment gap“kids now are more audiovisual than before, their respond and understanding is faster”
- Significantly provides school data“one example, the list control and children advance”
- Significantly improves attainment“their responds are faster and they have better understanding to reach it”
- Significantly builds student knowledge“being more audiovisual, their interest is higher”

Patricia Kujawski
Teacher
Used Spellzone weekly for 4-6 months
Sep 2022
The students enjoy working on Spellzone and ask all the time if they can get on the website.
Patricia Kujawski found Spellzone:
- Significantly reduces teacher workload“Students can practice their spelling on their own and take the test online.”
- Moderately reduces attainment gap“Spellzone fills in gaps in their spelling foundatonal skills.”
- Slightly provides school data“N/A”
- Moderately improves attainment“Spelling improves among the students.”
- Significantly builds student knowledge“The understanding of rules of spelling help the students write better essays.”

Jody Unterrheiner
Executive Director
Used Spellzone daily for 1-2 years
Feb 2022
I love how it is differentiated for all levels. The games and activities give children time to practise words at their unit level. Children can use it both at home and at school. And children find it fun. They don't realise they are learning when they are playing the games.
Jody Unterrheiner found Spellzone:
- Significantly reduces teacher workload“The individual spelling pathways created mean it is differentiated for a wide range of abilities in the classroom. Children can just log on and learn at their level.”
- Significantly reduces attainment gap“You can see students making improvements in their spelling when they progress through the units and their Spelling Ability Test result improves. I can also see improvements during individual writing.”
- Significantly provides school data
- Significantly improves attainment“Writing levels have been improving. Along with pronunciation and speaking skills.”
- Significantly builds student knowledge“Students' knowledge of spelling rules has increased.”

Anna Hughes
Head of English
Used Spellzone weekly for 7–12 months
Nov 2021
Reliable, student-friendly, nice mix of achievement- and effort-based reward, easy to use, excellent support, Dyslexia-friendly, personalised.
Anna Hughes found Spellzone:
- Significantly reduces teacher workload“Course pathway personalises learning for the children, saving the teacher hours of work in preparing individual resources.”
- Moderately reduces attainment gap“Dyslexia friendly so helps ALL children progress where more traditional approaches eg the weekly spelling test leave many behind.”
- Significantly provides school data
- Moderately improves attainment
- Moderately builds student knowledge“Broadens their vocabulary significantly, improving comprehension and attainment across subjects.”

Pauline Mably
Whole School Learning Support Coordinator (Nursery - Yr13) and English/History Teacher
Used Spellzone for 1-2 years
Mar 2021
All of our learners have devices so it is fast, structured and easy to use. It is also very consistent. However, I would advise having them use it whilst on Teams or Zoom so that you can screen share and guide them through using it correctly as left alone they tend to rush through it!
Pauline Mably found Spellzone:
- Significantly improves attainment“We use it as an intervention in Primary and Secondary and are watching it improve their writing and spelling abilities.”
- Significantly builds student knowledge“Our students are mainly EAL so it works well as a vocabulary tool.”
- Moderately reduces attainment gap“Almost all of our students who use Spellzone make progress in Literacy.”
- Significantly reduces teacher workload“It is an independent programme that we can put them on quickly but that is structured and consistent.”
- Does not significantly provide school data“We haven't really figured this out but would like to.”

Mar 2021
spellzone is a brilliant program that helps children develop their spellings and comprehension. It is really easy to use and monitor. The support from Barry and his team is second to none.
Terrie Penrose-Toms found Spellzone:
- Significantly improves attainment“Has increased pupils standardised scores by over 10 points”
- Significantly builds student knowledge“The comprehension it uses helps pupils understand new words”
- Significantly reduces attainment gap“We start off with an average of 100 year 7 pupils completing spellzone by year 9 that has reduced significantly as their spelling standardised score has reached age appropriate or above”
- Does not significantly reduce teacher workload“It helps as a ready made tool but I have become responsible for monitoring spellzone weekly so that has increased my workload whilst reducing others workload”
- Significantly provides school data“Our results are passed on to senior management to be used in Literacy meetings”

Sue
Head of Student Support
Used Spellzone for 5 years+
Mar 2021
Spellzone provides students with an independent learning tool that is paced for them, with no pressure. It suits a range of learner profiles and ages. In the school where I work teachers, with English as a second language have also used Spellzone to improve their English spelling.
Sue found Spellzone:
- Significantly improves attainment“Access to IB exams with spellchecker on is far more viable, as students best guesses are based on spelling patterns/rules learnt through Spellzone.”
- Significantly builds student knowledge“Develops vocabulary, very useful in a multi lingual setting. We are using Spellzone with EAL and learning support students.”
- Moderately reduces attainment gap“Students who join our school in upper secondary with English as a second language are able to use Spellzone to help narrow the spelling/vocabulary gap. Especially where specific vocabulary lists are made. Crucial if they are going to be taking exams in English.”
- Significantly reduces teacher workload“Students are able to work independently once set up. Teachers can quickly follow individual student progress. Spellzone is not instead of teaching spelling, but in addition to and reduces the need for 1:1 teacher time. Spellzone provides a bespoke spelling route for each student.”
- Slightly provides school data“We use it more of a guide and use standardised spelling tests (GL Assessment) for specific data collection. However, Spellzone certainly helps us understand each students spelling journey, giving us a baseline and progression tracking & monitoring.”

Feb 2021
The site is appealing and easy to navigate. The definitions, practise sessions (look, say, cover, write, check) and the games reinforce the relevant spelling pattern superbly - it is everything I need in a busy classroom environment.
Siobhan Moulding found Spellzone:
- Significantly improves attainment“-Pupils like the bank of vocabulary; it encourages them to use higher level vocabulary in their writing -Pupils like high challenge, low stakes of the games so they are prepared to practise more often”
- Significantly builds student knowledge“-allows opportunities for word meanings to be discussed -pupils have become far more secure with terminology like prefixes, suffixes and word roots -Pupils like to talk about words and their links with other words -Pupils beginning to ask about word roots (etymology)”
- Significantly reduces attainment gap“not yet - haven't been using Spellzone long enough to measure this”
- Significantly reduces teacher workload“-Bank of words is readily available -Can use Spellzone games at frequent intervals during the day - participation is high, pupils enthusiastic to contribute - variety of ready-made games keeps pupils interested”
- Slightly provides school data“At the moment, I am trialling in my class (not whole school)”

Pedagogy
Certified by Education Alliance Finland, 12/2019
EAF Evaluation is an academically-backed approach to evaluating the pedagogical design of a product. EAF evaluators assess the product using criteria that covers the most essential pedagogical aspects in the learning experience.
Learning goals
Certified by Education Alliance Finland
The supported learning goals are identified by mapping the product against the selected reference curriculum and soft skills definitions most relevant for the 21st century.
- Learning to notice causal connections
- Practising visual recognition
- Practicing to observe spoken and written language
- Practicing categorization and classification
- Practicing memorizing skills
- Practicing letters, alphabets and written language
- Learning to find the joy of learning and new challenges
- Practicing to take responsibility of one's own learning
- Practicing persistent working
- Learning the basics of spelling
- Practicing keyboard skills and touch typing
- Using technology as a part of explorative process
- Enabling the growth of positive self-image
- Practicing to use foreign language as a communication tool
- Use a thesaurus.
- Use dictionaries to check the spelling and meaning of words.
- Use knowledge of morphology and etymology in spelling and understand that the spelling of some words needs to be learnt specifically, as listed in English Appendix 1.
- Continue to distinguish between homophones and other words which are often confused.
- Spell some words with ‘silent’ letters [for example, knight, psalm, solemn].
- Spell words that are often misspelt (English Appendix 1).
- Spell further homophones.
- Use further prefixes and suffixes and understand how to add them (English Appendix 1).
- Apply spelling rules and guidance, as listed in English Appendix 1.
- Add suffixes to spell longer words, including –ment, –ness, –ful, –less, –ly.
- Distinguishing between homophones and near-homophones.
- Learning to spell more words with contracted forms.
- Learning to spell common exception words.
- Learning new ways of spelling phonemes for which one or more spellings are already known, and learn some words with each spelling, including a few common homophones.
- Spelling segmenting spoken words into phonemes and representing these by graphemes, spelling many correctly.
- Using letter names to distinguish between alternative spellings of the same sound.
- Using the spelling rule for adding –s or –es as the plural marker for nouns and the third person singular marker for verbs.
- Using the prefix un–.
- Apply simple spelling rules and guidance.
- Using –ing, –ed, –er and –est where no change is needed in the spelling of root words [for example, helping, helped, helper, eating, quicker, quickest].
- Spelling common exception words.
- Spelling words containing each of the 40+ phonemes already taught.
- Apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (morphology and etymology), as listed in English Appendix 1, both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words that they meet.
- Apply their growing knowledge of root words, prefixes and suffixes (etymology and morphology) as listed in English Appendix 1, both to read aloud and to understand the meaning of new words they meet.
- Read further exception words, noting the unusual correspondences between spelling and sound, and where these occur in the word.
- Read further common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word.
- Read words containing common suffixes.
- Read accurately words of two or more syllables that contain the same graphemes as above.
- Read accurately by blending the sounds in words that contain the graphemes taught so far, especially recognising alternative sounds for graphemes.
- Continue to apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words until automatic decoding has become embedded and reading is fluent.
- Read other words of more than one syllable that contain taught GPCs.
- Read words containing taught GPCs and –s, –es, –ing, –ed, –er and –est endings.
- Read common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word.
- Apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words.
- Using dictionaries to check the meaning of words that they have read.
- Practicing letters, alphabets and written language
- Practicing to observe spoken and written language
- Learning the basics of spelling
- Distinguishing between homophones and near-homophones.
- Using –ing, –ed, –er and –est where no change is needed in the spelling of root words [for example, helping, helped, helper, eating, quicker, quickest].
- Spelling common exception words.
- Practising visual recognition
- Read words with contractions [for example, I’m, I’ll, we’ll], and understand that the apostrophe represents the omitted letter(s).
- Read other words of more than one syllable that contain taught GPCs.
- Read words containing taught GPCs and –s, –es, –ing, –ed, –er and –est endings.
- Read common exception words, noting unusual correspondences between spelling and sound and where these occur in the word.
- Respond speedily with the correct sound to graphemes (letters or groups of letters) for all 40+ phonemes, including, where applicable, alternative sounds for graphemes.
- Apply phonic knowledge and skills as the route to decode words.
- Acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for reading, writing and spoken language.
- Use knowledge that every syllable must have a vowel sound to determine the number of syllables in a printed word.
- Know final -e and common vowel team conventions for representing long vowel sounds.
- Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.
- Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.
- Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
- Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes).
- Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
- Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds.
- Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
- Practicing to observe spoken and written language
- Supporting student to build their own linguistic and cultural identity
- Learning about different languages
- Practicing memorizing skills
- Practicing letters, alphabets and written language
- Practicing to set one's own learning goals
- Practicing to take responsibility of one's own learning
- Learning the basics of spelling