Handwriting

As a school our aims in teaching handwriting are that the pupils will:

• Experience coherence and continuity in learning and teaching across Foundation Stage and School
• Develop a recognition and appreciation of pattern and line
• Understand the importance of clear and neat presentation in order to communicate meaning clearly 
• Take pride in the presentation of their work and therefore study handwriting with a sense of enjoyment and achievement 
• Be supported in developing correct spelling quickly through a multi-sensory
  approach to handwriting
• Be able to write quickly to aid expressing themselves creatively and
  imaginatively across the curriculum and for a range of purposes.
• Use their skills with confidence in real life situations.
• Develop a fluent, joined handwriting style by Year Two (The National
  Curriculum in England 2013)

In school our handwriting is based on the Continuous Cursive Writing font, which teaches the children to add lead-ins to their lower-case letters. This has been adopted as a result of the new National Curriculum objective for Year Two as stated above and the fact that children who learn cursive from an early age develop fluency without having to change their style of handwriting once they can print letters. The British Dyslexia Association recommends this method as it causes less confusion for those children with dyslexic tendencies. 

Children are taught to write letters through the letter families – caterpillars, robots, ladders and zig-zag. As well as structured handwriting lessons, they also incorporate handwriting practice into their phonics and spelling lessons. They learn to write using print within their phonics and move towards cursive for writing tasks.

Please refer to Appendix 2 ‘Handwriting Guide’ to see which letters fall into which family and how they are formed.

Children follow the handwriting programme based on their individual skill level. Children are then expected to use these skills in their independent writing to ensure their handwriting is well presented at all times. 

In Key Stage Two, once a child is deemed to have a neat handwriting style in their independent writing, they are given a pen licence, which allows them to use pen instead of pencil, if they so wish.

Legible handwriting that can be produced at speed, and with a minimum of thought, allows a child to give their full attention to the composition and content of their writing, and to their learning in other curriculum areas. Without fast and legible handwriting, students may miss out on learning opportunities and under-achieve academically (National Handwriting Association).