WITHERNSEAPRIMARY SCHOOL
Handwriting Policy
Reviewed Spring 2016
(To be reviewed Spring 2018)
Handwriting Policy
Rationale
At Withernsea Primary School, all children will be introduced to Cursive Handwriting from the start. We believe this raises standards in the Early Years which has impacted throughout the whole school, developing confidence, accuracy and fluency and improved presentation. This new handwriting style will be introduced to EYFS and Year One September 2014, and spread to one additional year group each academic year that follows.
The rules of the Cursive Style help:
- to minimise confusion for the child as every letter starts on the line with an entry stroke and leads out with an exit stroke
- with the flow of Cursive Writing as letters naturally flow into each other, it is impossible to write separate letters without joining.
- form spacing between words as the child develops whole word awareness
- develop a child's visual memory
- all children's writing skills regardless of academic ability
- to develop skills of punctuation and grammar
All children write with a pencil, although older pupils are introduced to black ink pens.
Aims
- To provide equal opportunities for all pupils to achieve success in handwriting
- To produce clear, concise, legible handwriting
- To present work to a variety of audiences neatly
- To develop accuracy and fluency
- To help children recognise that handwriting is a form of communication and as such should be considered important in order for it to be effective
- To promote confidence and self-esteem
- To encourage children to take pride in their work
- To build in cross curricular links to broaden experience
- To help children recognise that handwriting as a life-long skill and will be a fundamental element of all forms of written communication throughout their lives
- To display neatly presented work around the school as a model of excellence for others to aspire to
Development of learning and teaching handwriting
Foundation
On entry, Foundation children are involved in a variety of activities to develop essential pre-writing skills in line with the Early Learning Goals of the Foundation Stage.
Activities to develop gross motor control, for example rolling hoops and running with a hoop, ribbon movement, chalking, painting on a large scale, Interactive White Board.
Activities to develop fine motor control: e.g. tracing, colouring within guide lines and pictures, pattern work, using glue spreaders in small pots, painting with the tips of the fingers, cotton buds, plasticine, threading.
All these develop spatial awareness "P.E. on paper."
Years 1 to 6 to follow set teaching programme detailed in Appendix 2.
Handwriting Workshop for Parents
Parents are invited to attend an induction workshop for ‘new’ parents, held in the summer term. This enables us to outline our rationale and engage their support in encouraging their child to practise the Cursive Style at opportune moments at home. They are each given a copy of the Cursive Style alphabet poster, (which is displayed in all classrooms as an aid to learning and teaching) which they are shown how to use at the workshop.
The use of ICT
All teachers use the Interactive Whiteboard in direct teaching: use of the lined writing templates are an essential tool for learning, as the teacher can demonstrate the correct letter formation and joins clearly to the whole class at once if necessary.
Younger children rehearse ‘large letters/joins’ on a blank screen, using different colours and thicknesses of line.
Children with difficulties
Sometimes some children may experience difficulties but this is often due to a coordination problem or adapting a let handed style. Activities to develop 'gross motor skills' can be promoted as these will assist fine motor skills, as will plenty of pre-writing activities to loosen up the wrist and upper arm.
Older children needing additional support are given short bursts of handwriting practice, one -to-one with a Teaching Assistant, as often as possible (daily preferably.) Use of a small whiteboard and pen is often the most successful aid as they are less restrictive and enable the child to feel less inhibited.
Monitoring
The presentation of all work is monitored through annual work scrutinies.
Model used
Withernsea Primary School uses the Handwriting Scheme with the following letter formation:
Lower case letters
Capitals
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
The Four Joins
1. to letters without ascenders
2. to letters with ascenders
3. horizontal joins
4. horizontal joins to letters with ascenders
The break letters (letters that aren’t joined from) are:
b g j p q x y z s
APPENDIX 1
Techniques for teaching letter formation
• Model good handwriting all the time
• Demonstrate
• Talk through through the process
• Encourage children to verbalise the process
• Children form letters in the air
• Finger trace over tactile letters
• Write over highlighter pen (or dotted letters)
• Draw round templates
• Write in sand with finger or stick
• Write with chalk on chalkboard
• Wax resist letters
• Form letters with pegs on pegboard
• Form letters with beads in platicine
• Finger trace the outline of letters on the back of the person in front of you
Seating and posture
• Chair and table should be at a comfortable height
• The table should support the forearm so that it rests lightly on the surface and is parallel to the floor
• Encourage children to sit up straight and not slouch
• The height of the chair should be such that the thighs are horizontal and feet flat on the floor
• Tables should be free of clutter
• Rooms should be well lit
• Left handed pupils should sit on the left of their partners
APPENDIX 2
Order of teaching
Single letters (YR and Y1)
• c a d g q o
• e s f
• i l t
• u y j k
• r n m
• h b p
• v w x z
Supporting activities
• tracing patterns
• tracing
• copying over (letters, numbers and words)
• copying under (letters, numbers and words)
Joins Y2 (going into Y3)
Introduction of the four handwriting joins
• First join; un um ig id edeg an or ingung
• Second join; chshthtlll ill slisluckackststi ink unk
• Third join; odpg re veoonoom
• Fourth join; wlvl of ffflflo
• Practise the break letters b p g q y j z
• Practise capital letters
Supporting activities
• Match and copy captions
• Trace and copy patterns
• Copy words
• Copy sentences
• Write out menu
• Copy poem
• Alphabetical ordering
Joins Y3 (going into Y4)
Revision
• Practise the break letters b p g q y j z
• Practise capital letters
Further practise of the four handwriting joins
• inine
• utute
• ve vi
• ok oh
• sh as es (practising two ways of joining the letter s)
• rirury (practising joining from the letter r)
• oa ad as (practising joining to and from the letter a)
• eeeaed (practising joining from the letter)
• owov ox (practising joining from the letter o)
• kyhyly (practising joining to the letter y)
• ha ta fa (practising joining to the letter a)
• odooog( practising joining from the letter o)
• erirur (practising joining to the letter r)
• ai al ay
• o you oi
• reoefe (practising the horizontal join to the letter e)
• fuwu vu (practising the horizontal join to the letter u)
• otol ok (practising joining to ascenders)
• ai al ow ol (practising all the joins)
Supporting activities
• copy words
• copy sentences
• copy poems
• match questions to answers
• copy jokes
• make and copy compound words
Year 4
• ning ping ting
• oc od oo
• akeome are
• flaflofle
• whowhawhe
• ie in il
• inlykyny
• apar an
• ickuckack
• practise writing with a slope
• he
• we
• re
• fte fir fin
• wrawrikni (silent letters)
• iillttrrnn mm cc ooddssffee
• ewev ex (spacing)
• thhtfl (proportions)
• ac ag af
• Capital letters
• Decorated capital letters
• Practising with punctuation ! ? – “ “ , ‘
Supporting activities
• Copy words, sentences, poems
• Trace and copy
• Copy tongue twisters
• Copy instructions
Years 5 and 6
• Practise consistency and size of letters
• Practising using a diagonal joining line
• Practising leaving an equal space between letters
• Practising joining to the letter y
• Practising using a horizontal joining line
• Practising the size and height of letters
• Practising joining from the letter i
• Practising joining to and from the letter v
• Practising consistency in forming and joining letters
• Practise speedwriting
• Practising crossing double tt on completing the work
• Practising joining to and from the letter e
• Practising joining to and from the letter w
• Practising printing
• Practising drafting and editing
• Practising joining to the letter t