Intent
Our aim is to produce legible, fluent, and aesthetically pleasing writing in the cursive style so that the children may be proud of the presentation of their work. It is important that they become fluent writers who can write at a fairly quick speed. Mastering this crucial life skill unlocks the mind, allowing the writer to concentrate on the content and quality of their writing.
Our objectives in the teaching of Handwriting is:
In the early stages, children are taught to hold a pencil correctly using the tripod grip and how to sit with the correct posture on a chair at the table. They learn how to form print letters using the Read, Write Inc handwriting phrases to support their formation.
They learn how to write from left to write in a book and to start their writing at the top of the page.
They are taught to put a finger space between words and to leave an adequate space between letters.
When they can form a letter confidently, they are taught to form letters and capital letters of the correct size in relation to each other.
Reception do not use cursive style as their manual dexterity and muscles in their shoulders, arms and hands are still developing.
During Year 1, children are taught the patterns necessary to form pre-cursive letters following our Letterjoin scheme. As they become fluent with cursive letter formation and accurate with number formation, children move onto be able to use this confidently in all their work.
From Year 2, as new spelling patterns are introduced children are taught to join using the horizontal and vertical join in the cursive style leading to fully cursive joined writing.
Throughout the school, children have their learning reinforced through practice to ensure they maintain this cursive style with increased fluency and speed.
Reception, and KS1 use a pencil in their writing lessons. In KS2 children work towards their pen licence, which will be awarded by the class teacher. At this point children use a blue handwriting pen. If their handwriting loses the cursive formation, then they can return to pencil until it fulfils the requirements of a pen user licence. From Year 5, children can be awarded their fountain pen licence for fluent, cursive writing across all books.
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