have there been handwriting changes in the curriculum?

[pinkunicornsarefluffy]

DD is in Year 4 and the teacher is new to the school. She is making the children change the way that they write joined up, and not allowing them to join any letters with tails, or x's.

This goes against last year where they were taught to join all of them. The children are very confused and the teacher has said that if they get it wrong they will have to write the whole page again, not rub it out.

Does anyone know if the curriculum has changed to advise that these letters shouldn't be joined, or if they were taught wrong previously or if they are being taught wrong now?

[Okkitokkiunga]

I think writing style depends from school to school. Sounds like yours has taught cursive and the new teacher probably didn't previously so maybe hasn't clicked into the fact that she should be. I'd check tbh.

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

My son has been taught to change the way he writes "f". Looks like a letter S now. Stupid. They were perfectly fine before and looked like Fs!!

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

So yeah, there HAVE been some curriculum changes . The teacher agreed with me it was daft.

[spanieleyes]

There is no prescribed way of forming letters, however they do have to be joined as and when appropriate.

[EweAreHere]

Yes, there have been handwriting changes. For example, the 'g' is no longer 'necessarily joined up ... not recommended any longer.

I think it stems on the absolute harshness with which the new SATs were marked on last year. Words that were 'right' were marked wrong if the letters weren't perfect. Ditto for punctuation not being formed perfectly, even if it was in the right place. I'm not exaggerating; I have seen various actual test answers that were marked wrong even though they were right due to letter size/punctuation shape/etc and they lost at appeal. So I imagine all schools are going over the top now to make sure letters are formed clearly and properly, as well as punctuation.

[mrz]

The newish national curriculum doesn't dictate a style of handwriting any changes are down to the school.

[jamdonut]

So we've just gone from a less joined up cursive form to a really curly,loopy form (which I hate! I was taught italics when I was at school!!) It means we've all had to change the way we write things, mainly by adding the join-up bits...we have to start on the line for most letters now!

[Andbabymakesthree]

It's up to the school to decide the handwriting policy and set it across the school.

[CannotEvenDeal]

I've not heard of NC handwriting changes at all... following with interest

[mrz]

You've not heard of them because there aren't any.

[Ditsy4]

And baby is right. Hand writing policy is chosen and set across the school.

[Hersetta427]

my daughters school has gone to a fully cursive style. As a result, her handwriting which was beautiful, now looks like a spider has gone mad across her workbooks. She is distraught and personally I am not happy as it is now quite hard to read her writing. She is in year 5 and they began the change during the summer term of year 4.

[elfonshelf]

It's optional for schools.

Personally I'd prefer children to learn to do legible print and how to touch type rather than spending hours learning how to do pretty cursive.

[chamenager]

So would this be a correct summary:

There have been no NC changes, but due to 2016 SATS marking being very strict on correct letter and punctuation formation, some schools may be putting more emphasis on handwriting now than they did even last year.

And some schools may have changed handwriting policies just because, as it lies very much within their remit and they can do so at any time.

[TreehouseTales]

My daughters lovely writing became spidery due to a change in policy. It seems so unfair when they work so hard on their work.

I never remember my writing having your be so specific, they were more interested in the story.

This is mad :( schools trying to do anything to help pass the sats so education becomes about that..

[mrz]

"There have been no NC changes, but due to 2016 SATS marking being very strict on correct letter and punctuation formation"

There aren't any marks for handwriting in the SATs but at least one child is known to have lost a mark due to a comma leaning to right

[mrz]

"There have been no NC changes, but due to 2016 SATS marking being very strict on correct letter and punctuation formation"

There aren't any marks for handwriting in the SATs but at least one child is known to have lost a mark due to a comma leaning to right

[Sprink]

A comma? That's draconian.

[mrz]

I've not heard of anyone losing marks for handwriting style

[spanieleyes]

But it is impossible to achieve a higher standard of writing in KS2 without a cursive style, whatever the content quality.

[mrz]

Surely all schools would have been teaching a cursive style anyway as it was required for level 3 in the old national curriculum.

[spanieleyes]

But in KS2, handwriting would only account for 3 marks out of the total writing mark and wasn't a limiting factor at all. So children could still achieve a level 5 without cursive writing. Now it is impossible to be assessed as higher UNLESS cursive is used.

[mrz]

That's always been the case in KS1

[Spottyladybird]

I came on to say what's Spaniel has just mentioned.

Year sixes working at the expected level for writing must be:

maintaining legibility, fluency and speed in handwriting through choosing whether or not to join specific letters.

This is during independent writing tasks so basically has to be second nature. It's worthwhile noticing that this is the EXPECTED level not exceeding. If they're not Doug this they'll be assessed at working below the expected level for year 6.

[CharleyDavidson]

If the issue that's upsetting the OP's dc is that they are being required to change their style, ask to see the teacher and/or a copy of the handwriting policy.