QUESTIONS, ANSWERED

Word Goal is a football-themed spelling app for children in Years 3 to 6. Children hear a word read aloud in a sentence, type the spelling against a clock, and earn XP for a customisable player. They also explore word morphology and etymology through short Word DNA interactions. It's built around the statutory National Curriculum spelling word lists.

Primary schools running spelling practice for Key Stage 2, and parents who want their child to practise their spelling list at home without a printed sheet, a stopwatch or an argument.

No. The football theme — matches, leagues, kit — is just the framing for the practice. The spelling task itself is the same either way: hear it, type it.

Word Goal runs in a web browser, so it works on a phone, tablet, Chromebook, iPad or laptop — anything the school or family already has, no app store download required.

Most children play in short bursts of around five minutes — one or two 10-word matches. There's no set homework length; day streaks and levels reward regular short sessions rather than long ones.

No. Word Goal reads the word aloud, marks the typed answer instantly, and keeps its own record of which words your child has and hasn't mastered. You don't need to read the list out or check the answers yourself.

Word Goal uses the same statutory Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 word lists set out in the National Curriculum, so it lines up with the spellings most primary schools teach, whether or not your child's school itself uses Word Goal.

No. XP is earned only by spelling and spent only in the Club Shop on things like boots, kit and stadium upgrades for the child's player. There's no real-money spending inside the app at any point.

It takes minutes. Create a school account with a work email, upload your class list, and WordGoal gives every pupil a player name and a 4-digit PIN, ready to print and hand out.

Yes. The staff room shows class-level mastery, so you can quickly spot words that several pupils are struggling with, alongside each pupil's own progress.

Common uses are a five-minute starter at the beginning of an English lesson, homework such as 'play two matches and clear three dog-fight words', or short twice-weekly intervention sessions using dog-fight rounds only.

It's built for retrieval practice alongside your existing teaching — children never see the word written down before typing it, so it tests recall of spellings you've already taught rather than replacing instruction.

Yes, pupils can be added or removed from the staff room at any point, for example when a class list changes or a pupil moves up a year group.

School pupils sign in at wordgoal.app/pupil with their player name and 4-digit PIN. At home a parent can sign in and choose the child instead.

A teacher can look it up in seconds with “Show login” in the staff room, or set a new PIN. PINs are kept locked away and only ever shown to a signed-in adult.

Teachers sign in with a work email and password, as they would for most school systems. Parents can create a free player account for their child in the same way, without needing a school to set it up.

A pupil's progress lives on the account they're given — either a school-issued login or one created at home. If a school later sets a pupil up separately, that will be a fresh account with its own progress.

The statutory Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 spelling word lists from the National Curriculum for English — the same lists the Key Stage 2 spelling test draws on — plus earlier Training Ground lists of high-frequency words, Year 1 and Year 2 common exception words and sound families. Many words also carry Word DNA notes on morphology and etymology.

Word Goal was built on teachers' recommendations, so practice runs in three progressive stages. The Training Ground secures everyday and common exception words, The Academy teaches how words are built from prefixes, roots, suffixes and word families (morphology) and where they come from (etymology), and the Leagues cover the statutory Years 3–6 lists. Children can play any stage at any time.

Three short games: Build-up Play breaks a word into its meaningful parts, Tactical Changes shows what changes when an ending joins a base word, and Pick the Squad groups words into families. Word DNA also adds etymology — where a word or prefix comes from. Each game finishes with the child spelling the word from memory.

They're split into six levels that grow with the child, from Academy Squad (Year 3) up to Elite League (Year 6, SATs ready). Every level is cumulative, so a child still keeps practising the words from the levels below rather than leaving them behind.

The Year 5/6 levels include the Year 3/4 words as well as their own, so earlier gaps keep resurfacing rather than disappearing once a child moves up.

Yes — the level is picked in one tap before a match, so practice matches whatever is being taught right now.

A clear voice reads the word, uses it in a full sentence, then repeats the word. The child then types the spelling. They can replay the audio as often as they like before answering.

Points reward both speed and accuracy — answering quickly and correctly the first time scores the most, while combos build across a round of correct answers.

They get three attempts. After the first miss the word is sounded out in chunks so they can hear the parts. After a second miss the correct spelling is shown for four seconds, then they get one final go — so they always see the right spelling before moving on.

They're short rounds made up only of a pupil's trickiest words — the ones the form table shows as 'needs work'. It's a focused way to target weak spellings rather than replaying the whole list.

XP earned from spelling is spent in the Club Shop on things that visibly change a player — boots, match balls, kits and stadium upgrades. XP can only be earned by spelling and never involves real money.

Levels and day streaks reward children for coming back regularly, showing progress toward the next promotion and giving a reason to play little and often rather than in one long session.

A one-page summary of matches played, accuracy, words mastered and words a child has turned around from wrong to right — written in plain English, without jargon.

Yes, the pupil report is designed to be printed or saved as a PDF, and it's built to be handed to a parent or used as evidence in a progress conversation.

Yes, teachers can also see a class report, which rolls up pupil progress so shared problem words or pupils who need extra support are easy to spot.

It updates after every match a pupil plays, so it always reflects their most recent practice rather than a fixed snapshot.

No. Children sign in with a player name and PIN, so no child email address is ever collected.

No. There's no chat or messaging between users, and no adverts anywhere in the app.

Progress and account data is stored securely against the account only, and progress is never shared publicly.

A pupil's own progress is visible to that pupil, their teacher (for a school account) or their parent (for a home account). Class-level data is only visible to that school's staff.

Yes. Every family can play three games free before payment is required.

WordGoal Family costs £9.99 per year and includes full access for up to four children.

Yes. Every child has their own profile, scores, streaks, levels, achievements and recorded spelling progress within the family account.

WordGoal is designed for children in Years 3–6.

Yes. WordGoal's spelling content is aligned to the English National Curriculum for Years 3–6.

School pricing is arranged directly with the school rather than published as a single fixed rate, since it depends on things like the number of pupils. Get in touch via the teachers & schools page to talk it through.

Minutes, not hours. Sign up, upload your class list, and print the login cards we generate — the class can be playing the same lesson.

Parents can create a family account and play three games free from the homepage. Schools can begin from the teachers & schools page.