School have asked year 4 children to switch from Cursive

@Rp735 please ask the teacher/school when your child will start cursive and whether they are allowed to use cursive.

They will need it before secondary school ; if they already have it I would want them to stick to it. It sounds like the school needs to run a cursive and non-cursive set.

@Confetto that's interesting.
My daughter's school (South London regular LA primary) called it "cursive" and it was more American style.
I added it to my mental list of "really....is this important" stuff the school was obsessed about 😂
They recently had a bad Ofsted and I have noticed the last year they have changed a few things (I still know people at the school) so maybe they will see the light of what is actually important and what isn't.

Schools are able to choose. It's basically a choice between lead ins or not. Writing with lead ins looks complicated if you've not learned it like that yourself and I think is hard for KS1 children to learn. I've never seen a school teach the style that is more common in the US - if you look at how they form their capital letters, they are entirely different. Most capitals are more complicated but also things like a capital a just being a tall version of lower case a. Also look at how lower case r is formed (similar to in France etc.)

It seems insane to stop it altogether just because some children can't form letters well. Surely it would make more sense to leave the children who are comfortable with writing cursive to carry on, and take whatever steps they consider necessary with the others? Otherwise it will hold children like your daughter back if she's concentrating on her writing and not on her English.

It might be worth asking for a year group meeting with the Head and whoever is in charge of literacy to discuss this further.

@Confetto so is there a specific style that should be taught (ie like in the Carol Vorderman book) or can schools choose?
Because the "joined up writing" my daughter was taught was like something out of a Victorian school (or the popular American style) and was mostly difficult to read (not just her handwriting - but most of the class).

This thread is ridiculous.

Joined handwriting IS a requirement of the Y6 curriculum. Source: National Curriculum 2014.

Cursive simple means joined up handwriting. Source: the first several online dictionaries when you Google including Oxford Languages.

Cursive is not a special form of joined handwriting. Just because you think it's the American style, doesn't mean it is. There are several styles of joined writing taught in the UK. None is called 'cursive'. They are all types of cursive. In schools though, we generally say joined writing or a joined style.

I have a DS in year 13. I tried to read some of his work the other day and really struggled as he still writes 'joined up' (cursive isn't an accurate description for the barely legible scribbling!) as he finds it faster and easier. Especially in exams, he says it means he can write a lot more. Which is fair enough, but I feel really sorry for his teachers who have to read his work!
In his 6th form, most of his subject teachers like handwritten essays, for some reason. In uni, it's typed only so not sure this is great practice really. As PP said, learning to type faster would be much more helpful.

@IsitChristmasyet23 are you a teacher? If a child was using the Carol Vorderman book as practice would that style be accepted in your school? Is it following the "rules" of what is required for sats etc?
If yes then what you call "cursive" isn't cursive.
It's joined up writing.

My understanding was 'joined up' writing is different to cursive.

I think cursive is fine if you're into that, but should be pursued as a hobby and not taught in schools. It's the same as calligraphy in my opinion (pretty but pointless)

Quick, clear, joined up writing is a skill I think most people should aim from.

So did you ask the teacher?

It is. Legible ‘joined handwriting.’ Even more lol at people telling actual year 6 teachers what is statutory and not. Feel free to read the actual TAF I posted.

All the replies from people who don’t have a clue! Cursive handwriting is NOT a requirement at year 6. Legible handwriting is, which is possibly why they’ve swopped. But we’ll NEVER know will we because op hasn’t bloody asked the school!!!
Aahhhh!!!!!

@IsitChristmasyet23 maybe I am wrong....but when I was in primary (1980s) we were taught "joined up writing" which was like the style in the Carol Vorderman book. We briefly had class pen pals from America and they all wrote what our teacher said was "cursive" which was taught in America. It was that fancy stuff.
I read a lot of American books - one was a whole book about a girls struggle with the fancy cursive.
My daughter's primary (she left 4 years ago) called it cursive - and it was most definitely the American style - not basic joined up.
Apparently in America they don't tend to teach cursive as standard anymore.

Actually you’re wrong.

@ZadocPDederick cursive is a lot more fancy and curly whirly than general joined up writing.
See the 2 pictures for an example.
The Carol Vorderman book is what I would call "joined up writing" not "cursive". They are different. You don't need write in cursive ever unless you are making wedding invites or something.

I don't write in cursive. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my literacy at all so you might want to knock that preconception on the head.

I find cursive much slower and more illegible than my normal handwriting.

Handwriting from Churchill's era is completely different. Pretty much no one writes like that any more.

This is really weird. As I've said, I've never come across an adult who doesn't write in cursive. If, say, I had to deal with a job application that was accompanied by a handwritten letter that was printed, I would think there are serious question marks about that person's literacy. Certainly printing does not speed up writing - the very act of constantly picking your pen up from the page between letters seriously slows you down.

Have a look at, for instance, the various extant samples of Churchill's handwritten notes, all in cursive. Was he not an adult?

How can it be babyish? Cursive is just joined handwriting. I don't know any adults who don't use it.

I was a class teacher for 30 years, 3 of them pre NC.
Hundreds, possibly thousands of initiatives forced into primary over that time, and unlike secondary, they were for all teachers. Not just subject-specific.
You are monitored on all of them, assessed against them. If the current zeitgeist is that they write cursive with lead ins in green gel pen on days with an E in them and in blue handwriting pen on odd numbered days, that’s the rule you break as a teacher at your peril.
So much doesn’t make sense, so much is thrown out and replaced at arbitrary intervals and you gain get dizzy trying to remember what the buzz words are this term.
Statutory rules are one thing, guidance is another but in primary, the head and SLT have vast control over their staff, and the ability to micromanage.
They pride themselves on establishing the rules for their turf and enforcing them. So handwriting policies are often detailed, year-specific and monitored to see if the teacher is doing it right according to the customisation required by the school.

But joined up writing is so much quicker than printed! That’s the whole
point of it.

Why have you put required in inverted commas?

Generally in sure secondary teachers teach what is in exams, to get their kids the results they need. We do the same in primary. You would be performance managed as a KS2 teacher if you decided joined handwriting didn't matter so your class didn't have to bother.

Can people also look up cursive in a dictionary? It literally means joined handwriting. There are different styles of joined handwriting - writing with lead ins is not a specific style known as cursive.

That’s good for you. It’s also why primary teachers generally hate it. However, if parents and secondary teachers pulled their fingers out and raised this with the powers that be - it could change. Instead far easier to blame primary teachers who are held to statutory guidance.

The guidance says ‘joined’ but I think that leaves some degree of interpretation possible? My child moved at Yr3 from a school that taught ‘normal’ joined up handwriting (print first, then join most letters but not all) to one that taught cursive (learn all letters with a trailing start, join everything).

I spoke to the teacher and was told that the ‘joined’ wording for KS2 did not mean ‘must join every letter’ and if, for example, he wrote ‘join’ with the j separate and joining the o,i and n, that would meet the required standard. So he didn’t write cursive and was fine with ‘simple’ joining. SATS now complete and no issues.

Oops that was in reply to someone but I cocked up the quote and reply things!