Hillside Primary School

Handwriting

 

At Hillside Primary School we want pupils to be proud of their handwriting and presentation in every piece of work.  At Hillside we use Letter-join’s on-line handwriting resource

 

Objective

Handwriting is a basic skill that influences the quality of work throughout the curriculum. All pupils should have the ability to produce fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy joined-up handwriting, and to understand the different forms of handwriting used for different purposes. Our intention is to make handwriting an automatic process that does not interfere with creative and mental thinking.

 

Aims:

• To develop a neat, legible, speedy handwriting style using continuous cursive letters, which leads to producing letters and words automatically in independent writing.

• To establish and maintain high expectations for the presentation of written work.

• For pupils to understand the importance of neat presentation and the need for different letterforms (cursive, printed or capital letters) to help communicate meaning clearly.

 

When teaching handwriting, staff should use the terms ascender and descender and make clear how these letters are formed in terms of size in relation to other letters.  Children are expected to sit correctly for handwriting and use a tripod grip to hold their pencil.  This is clearly modelled and reinforced by the teacher.  The continuous cursive font should include lead-in and lead-out lines.  This includes letters which finish on the left and descenders.  Capital letters are not joined.

 

Handwriting frequency

Handwriting is a cross-curricular task and high quality handwriting and presentation is expected from pupils during all lessons. Formal teaching of handwriting will be carried out regularly and systematically to ensure Key Stage targets are met.  The different handwriting joins (horizontal, diagonal)  are explicitly modelled using Letter-Join’s online teaching resources but could also be taught be conjunction with daily or weekly spelling patterns and / or vocabulary linked to the learning theme to support the children with developing handwriting in a way that supports other curriculum areas and is meaningful.

 

Inclusion

For children who experience handwriting difficulties due to fine motor development, including those who are left-handed and those with special educational needs, the appropriate additional

support will be put into place. This could include providing different widths of pencil, different shaped pencil grips suitable for the individual child’s needs or a twist ‘n’ write pencil.