Handwriting

Cursive Handwriting

Parent’s Guide to Cursive Handwriting

At Findern we teach the children to write in a cursive style from Reception. When your child first comes to school, they will learn to form every letter with an entry and exit stroke.

This is a solid foundation for teaching joined handwriting later on. Children are taught that every letter starts on the line. 

You can support your child at home by encouraging them to trace over the letters of their name on the sheet provided when they first come into school. Handwriting sheets may be sent home in different year groups if this is a skill your child needs to consolidate. You will find a video showing the correct way to form letters and handwriting sheets at the bottom of this page. Reluctant writers are often more willing to try if you give them different colour pens to trace over. You can even enlarge the letters and trace over using paint, chalk, using a bottle of water with a sports cap, or even tracing over the letters with a toy car.

Constant repetition is the key, emphasising the correct entry and exit strokes every time. It is essential that your child gets into good habits early on and this includes having the correct pencil grip.

One of the advantages of the cursive style is that you can quickly identify when a child is forming letters incorrectly. For example trying to start a  at the bottom and moving clockwise, rather than starting with the entry stroke and then moving anticlockwise from the top of the letter to the bottom.

Although the cursive style can seem quite laborious to start as it takes slightly longer to write each letter separately, you will really see the benefits when your child starts to join fully, for some this is the end of Year 1 and others in Year 2.

Handwriting Objectives

In EYFS – ELG Goals:

Physical Development:

Hold a pencil effectively in preparation for fluent writing – using the tripod grip in almost all cases.

Writing:

Write recognisable letters, most of which are correctly formed.

In Year 1:

Pupils should be taught to:

• form lower-case letters of the correct size relative to one another
• start using some of the diagonal and horizontal strokes needed to join letters and understand which letters, when adjacent to one another, are best left unjoined
• write capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower-case letters
• use spacing between words that reflects the size of the letters

IIn Year 2:

Pupils should be taught to:

• form lower-case letters of the correct size relative to one another
• start using some of the diagonal and horizontal strokes needed to join letters and understand which letters, when adjacent to one another, are best left unjoined
• write capital letters and digits of the correct size, orientation and relationship to one another and to lower-case letters
• use spacing between words that reflects the size of the letters

IIn Year 3 and 4:

Pupils should be taught to:

• use the diagonal and horizontal strokes that are needed to join letters and understand which letters, when adjacent to one another, are best left unjoined
• increase the legibility, consistency and quality of their handwriting

IIn Year 5 and 6:

Pupils should be taught to:

• write legibly, fluently and with increasing speed by:
  • choosing which shape of a letter to use when given choices and deciding whether or not to join specific letters
  • choosing the writing implement that is best suited for a task

Click on the writing link below to see a video showing how each letter is correctly formed.