Our approach and aims -

Our handwriting approach aligns with our whole school vision through having the following aims: 

• Effective Communication - we need children to effectively communicate 

• Resilience - Recognising that handwriting can be challenging at first and that regular practice will lead to success

• Aim High - Children should be proud of their work and their handwriting and presentation should be no exception; they should aim to make their work as attractive as possible.

Timetable expectations - weekly sessions in each class as a minimum 

What you will see in every classroom: 

• Explicit teaching of letter formation

• High expectations for presentation in all subjects 

Recording and Marking - Work is recorded in books; either in English / Phonics books or handwriting books (KS2).

Scheme, resources and licences - Letter formation is taught in line with the My Letters and Sounds Phonics scheme 

Teaching sequence for every class: 

EYFS - Reception

Children are given access to a range of pens, pencils, paint brushes etc from day one to encourage mark making straight away.

Fine motor skills are encouraged throughout the continuous provision, in many forms such as drawing, threading, painting, cutting, playdough, using instruments and much more.

Gross motor skills are also encouraged particularly outside to work on the muscles in the whole arm and not just the hand e.g. water painting with large brushes, giant bubble wands, brooms, scrubbing brushes, painting against a wall etc.

Initial thoughts / observations of the child's dominant hand are noted and that is encouraged by the adults if it seems comfortable for the child, although it is not uncommon for some to switch for a few weeks or so.

When starting the writing process, children have many hands-on activities, such as writing with their fingers in paint, glitter, shaving foam etc.

Pencils (both chunky triangular ones and standard ones) are offered for children to choose which they find most comfortable.

An effective tripod pencil grip is encouraged from the offset, children with alternative grips such as palmar or splayed fingers are shown how to achieve the tripod grip and encouraged to use it.

After the two week baseline period phonics begins, which introduces the children to daily writing activities, as follow ups to the sound learnt, on a whiteboard in the phonics session or as an activity based around their name e.g. our name diary we keep in the first full week of teaching.

Individual letter formation is taught during the introduction to each sound through our phonics scheme; My Letters and Sounds (MLS), this teaches the children a mnemonic to remember the sound and a short rhyme or story to explain its formation (Appendix A). 

A handwriting session is started once a week for children to practise the sounds learnt; these start as large letters on printed sheets from the MLS book (for Phase 2)  where children trace over and then continue to the end of the line.  We then move onto a similar format when working through Phase 3, but in our writing books so children can use the wide lines as guidance.

No joins are taught in Reception.

In MLS, the k and f are very different to what is used elsewhere in the school, therefore we teach what is in the scheme when introducing the grapheme, but show and use the ‘kicking k and curly f’ in and around the class so that they are familiar with both formations.

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Key Stage 1

In Year 1 and 2, handwriting is taught a minimum of 2-3 times per week (15/20 minute sessions) in the Autumn term. This then decreases to weekly sessions from Spring Term, when the formation of all letters have been re-taught and practiced. Any alternative pencil grips that remain are re-modelled to children to encourage the use of the tripod grip and/or an appropriate (rubber) pencil grip is given to children where needed. 

In KS1, children are taught to recognise letters and write them individually to form words, and later on, sentences. 

In Year 1, at this early stage, they are taught to ‘print’ words, meaning that each letter / word should be written clearly and individually. We use the same rhyme/story to explain the formation from MLS, as in Reception (Appendix A) however we do begin to encourage the curly f and k once children are confident, in preparation for Year 2.

In Year 2, the children are then taught pre cursive handwriting, in which children practise adding lead-ins and lead-outs to letters, which then ensures the letters start and finish in the correct place for writing to start to be joined, which happens towards the end of KS1 and into LKS2.

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Key Stage 2

In Years 3 and 4,  handwriting is taught ……

In Years 5 and 6,  handwriting is taught on a weekly basis. We begin with checking letter formation of the alphabet. We then combine our statutory spelling words with our handwriting sessions, focussing on three spellings a week. During our handwriting sessions, teachers will model the correct formation of letters and joins. As a class, we then discuss the handwriting expectations for our age (joined, consistent in size, tall ascenders and no loopy descenders) and then evaluate the teacher's handwriting, is it meeting expectations? In addition to this, they then discuss spelling patterns and the meaning of the words before the children have a go at writing them several times in their handwriting books. For those who need additional practice/modeling, the teacher prepares before the lesson the words for that day in their handwriting book. During this time, the teacher and teaching assistant are walking around the classroom and supporting anyone who requires additional support. To finish the lesson, children are then taught to give appropriate feedback to their peers to help improve their handwriting further. These sessions usually last 15-20 minutes.

If children require further assistance, there are opportunities in our timetable for small teacher assistant led handwriting surgeries.

Assessment and monitoring: Handwriting is modelled and then monitored during the handwriting session(s), so immediate and effective feedback can be given to children, alongside individual or whole group/class re-modelling, if required. 

Evidence in books of explicit handwriting sessions as well as general standards of presentation across the curriculum will inform senior leadership of progress. Examples of handwriting expectations at each stage can be seen in Appendix B.

Appendix A

My Letters and Sounds 

Alliterative Sentences/Actions and Letter Formation Rhyme/Patter 

Phase 2 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GlKiMwC7RM8_BC-Du5gQ3HcWYJi5oZRj/view?usp=drive_link

Phase 3 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JJuiVN6xjrNUfP5jVzBoux2F1CIy3wZQ/view?usp=drive_link 

Appendix B

Examples of print, precursive and cursive expectations.