Support · Families
Daily time limits
What a daily limit does
A daily time limit caps how long your child can play Spello in a given day. Once they've played for that long, Spello politely stops letting them start another round until tomorrow. The limit is per-child, so siblings on the same account can have different caps.
We recommend using a limit even if your child asks to play more — ten or twenty minutes a day of spelling practice is genuinely enough to make progress, and a clear stopping point keeps the habit positive.
Setting a limit
- Sign in at manage.spello.uk as the parent.
- Open your child's profile.
- Click Daily limit.
- Pick one of the options below, then Save.
| Option | When to pick it |
|---|---|
| 10 minutes | KS1 children, or children just starting out. A single short focussed session. |
| 20 minutes | KS2 children practising regularly, or anyone who'd rather do two short sessions in a day. |
| 30 minutes | Revision around tests — or if the child is genuinely enjoying themselves. |
| 60 minutes | A hard-to-hit maximum — a safety net rather than a target. |
| No limit | The default. Pick this if you want to manage play time yourself rather than have Spello do it. |
What the child sees at the limit
When a child tries to start a round after hitting their daily limit, Spello shows them a friendly "time's up — see you tomorrow" screen rather than starting a session. Nothing mid-round is interrupted — if they reach the limit 8 minutes into a 10-minute session, the current session finishes normally and the limit kicks in on the next one.
The day resets at midnight UK time, so a limit that was used up last night is available again in the morning.
Who can set the limit
The daily limit is strictly a parent control. Only the child's own parent can set or change it — school teachers, even for children enrolled at their school, can't. This is deliberate: the limit is about time at home, not time at school, and the person who owns that decision is the parent.
If a child's school sets them up on Spello and you'd like to add a home daily limit, see how a parent claims a school-enrolled child.
Changing your mind
Limits can be raised, lowered, or removed at any time from the same screen. Changes take effect immediately — a child currently playing will feel the new limit on their next session.
Still stuck? Email [email protected] — we normally reply within one working day.