Is this appropriate (teacher behaviour) and ideas to improve ds's writing!

[CocktailQueen]

Two questions in one post!

I go in to help each week and hear readers. When I arrived in class this week, ds's teacher said to me, 'Oh, ds has just written a good sentence. But his writing's terrible, I can't read any of it.' Now, ds was nowhere near her at this time and she was sitting with another table of dc, so they could all hear her, but ds couldn't. So what was the point of her saying that to me then?? I felt a bit about it.

At the last parents' evening I expressed my concern that ds's writing was hard to read, and she and the other class teacher said, 'oh, don't worry, it will improve'. When I asked about how to encourage writing at home, they said, 'oh, don't bother if he doesn't want to, we do lots of writing in school'.

So, WTF?? AIBU? (I know this is not AIBU but it was odd.)

Also, can anyone recommend strategies for encouraging ds to write at home? He just rushes everything - has to be first finished and hence his letters are hard to read. He's left handed btw. We have tried using a pencil grip but he doesn't like it.

Thank you!

[ProfYaffle]

How old is he? My dd2 is in yr 2 and left handed. It's been a bit of a slog, we've bought loads of stuff from anythinglefthanded.co.uk and did some handwriting practice at home (she was keen to do it and enjoyed having her own special books etc) A few tips have sunk in (like slanting the paper so her letters don't slope backwards) but it's only now she's really grasping that it's important for her letters to be legible and making a conscious effort to improve.

[Funnyfoot]

My DS had these issues up until this year really. His school is very pro active and we worked together to help him improve.

He also has to be the first to finish everything as he sees that as the goal, not completing neat work.

We used a big fat pencil at home. I also changed his focus from finishing quickly to producing neat writing by:

Starting with only 2 sentences for him to copy. The goal was to do it neatly not finish quickly. If I could read it great then he was finished. If not he did it again.
I also made sure there were no distractions such as T.V or siblings in the room.

It didn't take him long to grasp that neatness was the key. Over time we increased the length of the writing he was copying.
I worked with his teachers and those that finish before others get "golden time" which is they can read a book while the rest of the class finishes. DS loves reading so always wanted to finish quickly. The teachers changed it slightly so that even if he was last to finish he still had 10 minutes of book time as long has his work was neat. Even if he finished quickly if it was poor handwriting he was made to do it again but the reward was still given when he produced neat work.

It took a few months but his work is now readable.

[SavoyCabbage]

My dds teachers would say things like that to the parents as it is quite a relaxed school. Well, very relaxed.

I like the way that we are all not on our best behaviour with each other and that they treat us like ordinary people and we do the same. I hope that makes sense.

[CocktailQueen]

He's 6 and in Year 2. Thanks, Prof and funnyfoot -v helpful!