Handwriting Policy

“Handwriting is a tool that has to work. It must be comfortable, fast and legible.” Angela Webb, Chair, National Handwriting Association

Aims

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

• Experience coherence and continuity in learning and teaching across the 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 the end of Key Stage 2.

Handwriting is part of the new National Curriculum English curriculum.

Teaching and Learning

We teach handwriting as a specific skill. All children will receive dedicated handwriting practise time every day from Year 1-6. We follow the Nelson Handwriting Programme which believes that a ‘little and often’ approach is best to developing handwriting skills. Handwriting also forms part of the teaching and learning in other curriculum areas such as phonics in Key Stage 1, spelling practice in Key Stage 2 and cross-curricular writing.

Basic structure of a handwriting session:

• Fine-motor warm-up activity – finger gym or similar.
• Posture Check; feet flat on the floor, back touching the chair
• Teacher modelled session
• Independent practise time
• Review

The progression of handwriting at Manea Community Primary School takes place over three stages:

Stage 1  -  (to be reached by the end of the Foundation Stage):

Children learn to ‘print’ upper and lower case letters without joins.

Stage 2 -  (to be reached by the end of Key Stage 1):

Children will consolidate accurate letter formation of printed letters and numbers. Children will be 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. In Year 2, children will begin to use the four basic joins (see below) once they are securing in their letter formation.

Stage 3  -  (to be reached by the end of Key Stage 2):

Once children are able to form printed letters accurately, they will learn to join letters consistently using the four basic joins.

The time limits of these Stages are flexible; if a child in Reception is ready to move on to Stage 2, they should not be prevented from doing this. Similarly, if a child in Year 2 is ready to move onto Stage 3, they should not be prevented from doing this.

The Joining Style (End of Stage 2/ Stage 3)

Joins between letters are only worthwhile if they increase the speed, rhythm and ease of writing without reducing legibility.

Which letters join?  -  Joins are made both to and from the following 17 letters:

a b c d e h i k l m n o r t u v w

Joins are made to, but not from, the following 8 letters:

f g j p q s x y

Joins are never made when using the letter z

Joins are never made when using capital letters

The 4 basic joins:

1. Diagonal joins to letters without ascenders e.g. in
2. Diagonal joins to letters with ascenders e.g. at
3. Horizontal joins to letters without ascenders e.g. on
4. Horizontal joins to letters with ascenders e.g. the ‘eb’ in z-eb-ra

Inclusion

The vast majority of pupils are able to write legibly and fluently by the end of the primary phase.  However, some pupils need more support to achieve this and provision will be made for this in short-term intervention programmes and APDR (Assess, Plan, Do, Review) cycles. Teachers of children whose progress in handwriting is limited by issues with fine motor skills should liaise with the SENDCo to develop provision designed for the individual child. This may involve extra handwriting sessions and access to extra resources such as pencil grips and thicker writing pencils. Other areas that could be considered are posture, lighting, angle of table etc. Outside agencies, for example Occupational Therapy, can be contacted where appropriate.

All teachers are aware of the specific needs of left-handed pupils and make appropriate provision:

• paper should be positioned to the left for right handed pupils and to the right for left handed pupils and slanted to suit the individual in either case;
• pencils should not be held too close to the point as this can interrupt pupils’ line of vision;
• pupils should be positioned so that they can place their paper to their left side;
• left-handed pupils should sit to the left of a right-handed child so that they are not competing for space;
• extra practice with left-to-right exercises may well be necessary before pupils write left-to-right automatically.
• Developing Early Writing page 161 has further guidance

Teachers are alert to the fact that it is very difficult for left-handed pupils to follow handwriting movements when a right-handed teacher models them.  Teachers demonstrate to left-handers on an individual or group basis, even if the resulting writing is not neat.

The Learning Environment

In all classes, sharpened writing pencils must be available for all writing activities, within handwriting sessions or otherwise.  Handwriting pens will be used from Year 5, when the child has developed a legible, joined style. A single horizontal line will be used to cross out mistakes. Children should be exposed to many different styles of writing within their classroom learning environments and around the school, both handwritten and computer generated.