AIBU just tell my son he doesn’t have to do cursive writing anymore?

I recommend this website

https://donnayoung.org/penmanship/cursive.htm

My DC writing was unreadable before doing some of these. Its free

How did it go unchecked at his last school? Surely you noticed it during homework and gave him writing exercises with the letters done in that dot-to-dot pattern for him to follow? Doesn’t matter if the school was shit and not sorting if, you would have?

Cursive is faster. If the issue is that your DS has learnt incorrectly and is stuck in the habit, it would be worth going back to basics and mastering it correctly. I wouldn’t give up yet.

If there is an underlying issue eg dysgraphia or a spiky profile where his ability to write is out of sync with his other abilities and he is struggling to get his thoughts on to paper at the speed he thinks, you really want to address that before starting secondary school. If he can’t write quickly and legibly, he is going to be at a disadvantage in exams or when taking notes, it is also soul destroying when you have a lot to say but have to put all your energy into physically getting it on paper. It’s easy to get disillusioned with schoolwork if writing is so difficult for you. Switching to a laptop can make a huge difference but I would recommend moving towards doing that before starting year 7 so he can type proficiently when he starts secondary school.

Actually, the problem is that it’s irrelevant what style letters children are taught if they are not taught the correct letter formation.
So for cursive, they need to be able to form each individual letter with lead in and out strokes in the right places. Then once they master this, they can join correctly.
Fluent writing is key to speed and accuracy. Joined or otherwise matters not one jot.

Speaking from experience, they will not stop trying to force him to write in cursive in primary, even if they are sympathetic to the issue. DS' teacher 100% got it, but... he still had to do it. In the short term, for tests and assessments, tell him to write without cursive as in tose situations, readability is more important.

However, what's important is to start planning ahead for high school at this point. If I was you, I would seriously consider an assessment by an OT. They can either work with him to improve it OR they can sign off on him basically not being able to do it.

If the latter, you go into high school with the immediate awareness that his handwriting is poor. If his non-cursive is just fine, great. If it's also a bit weak, this gives you a strong argument for him being allowed to use an ipad/laptop (and start using a typing learning app now). Some schools will allow for most lessons, some only for homework, but it sets you up ahead of time... because you can't use laptops/keyboards for GCSE unless it's already established as a need.

I totally get this.

My DC were in reception when this was introduced into schools and their writing has always been dreadful. They both turned out to be dyslexic which must have made it more difficult for them.

Teacher here. It does not impact SATs at all in terms of marking. Where it can impact is with the final judgement for writing when it is moderated, as cursive is a national curriculum object for Y5/6.
However, it’s generally understood that children can meet the age related expectation for writing as long as they only drop either spelling or handwriting, so if his writing is otherwise good then not writing in cursive should be fine 😊 (plus it also depends on how bothered you and he are about this final ‘judgment’ in Year 6 as I know even as a teacher that many find standardised testing irrelevant)

I was always in so much trouble for my messy handwriting and got told they would take marks off me in my GCSEs if they couldn't read it properly.

So I started writing in block capitals. My writing was then neat and clear to read and they told me I would lose marks because I'd run out of time. So I learned to do it quicker. They still bitched and moaned.

For what its worth, I still write in block capitals 30 years on and it's never stopped me getting a job or a qualification.

I was never taught cursive. At 9 my writing was totally unconnected and not especially neat. We were also not taught spelling or punctuation!
I started writing cursive of my own accord aged about 11, last year of primary school.
I went on to get A* for both English GCSEs so it clearly didn't do any harm!

Ugh... I totally agree with you OP. My DS is 8, has struggled a lot with handwriting and the school are completely obsessed and inflexible, insisting on cursive. The whole precursive thing they had to learn with lead-in's and outs and funny little squiggles everywhere has confused the heck out of him and I actually believe has held him back in learning basic letter formation and letter recognition.

Cursive was the end of legible writing for my DC and now in year 10 manages with CAPITALS throughout and has permission to type too as otherwise his teachers can not mark the work

So from what I understand he will loose points in SATS for non cursive writing - hence primary pushing it. However if he is likely to loose more on his spelling because it is not readable then that is a lost argument.

Secondary do not care. However he writes so long as he gets it down. (And if he still struggles with speed he can use a laptop!)

What I would do is talk to the teacher, ditch the cursive for now, let him concentrate on learning the spelling / writing etc. Then maybe in 6 months when he's forgotten the bad habits perhaps try and teach him cursive from the beginning. If that doesn't work ditch it again. Noone beyond his yr6 teacher will care!

Everything is on computers now anyway; it is a very different world. They make dc feel awful for his handwriting in year 3. I tell him some of the most intelligent people have messy handwriting, eg, doctors, dentists. He is an amazing, and fast typer, and good at reading, and spelling. The writing is legible, just not neat. They're trying to get them to join up, and he doesn't want to. It's a bit daft and ironic considering the teachers pushing this have large spaced out, curved handwriting!

'buy a handwriting book for a guidelines'

Please sit down with him and show him some simple top joins before you give up. Joining incorrectly is worse than no joins.
The thing about handwriting is it needs a lot of practice, like hours and hours. Please have a look at Jarman for clear, simple joins, and buy a handwriting book for a guide.

I'm with you - I have a yr 5 ds and if I'm honest I can't read anything he writes which is not great.

He always writes so small so it's just a spaghetti of letters. Another one devastated by not having a pen license as well.

I'm going to have a chat with his teacher at parents evening about it so I'd definitely bring it up if you can.

I feel your pain! My son is the same, can print fine but struggles with cursive. So many conversations with teacher about how important cursive is and the bloody national curriculum yet the amount of teachers NOT using cursive when writing/marking in books is insane! I don't bother anymore, he's hardly going to fail in life because he doesn't write in cursive. As long as it's legible, who cares?

I very strongly disagree with cursive being pushed too early. I firmly believe that more time should be spent on neat, clear letters first. Could you go back to basics with him and reward him for it? Does he like art? Get him to draw a large letter and turn it into
a picture. If he sees the attraction of making it pleasing to look at, it may change his view of writing.

Secondary don't care.

My DD never got a pen licence at primary she was devastated! She went to secondary and is doing well in top sets etc I cannot understand the point of it tbh.

Cursive writing is very beneficial to the brain (have a google to find out why!)

However, one of my ds was dyspraxic (he still is but he has left school now)

and he was allowed to continue printing until high school when he switched to a keyboard.

As a teen though, he kicked off against this support and developed a nice cursive style all his own which he still uses now.

He used the keyboard for exams though.

So - i am partly with you - if it is a stressful struggle, keyboard is way.

But, the action of learning cursive improves motor skills, focus, all all sort.

Which is why schools promote it

OP, my DS (now 13) uses a tablet with keyboard for all subjects and tests now, because his writing is illegible. He learnt cursive, which, no matter the effort, was illegible, then went to non-cursive, which deteriorated over time. The teachers said he couldn't lose his writing skills (ha), so he spent so much time and put so much effort into writing, and he still lost many points in tests because the teachers couldn't read it. Even DS had trouble reading his hand-writing. DS does have a combination of problems most likely contributing to the illegibility, and these are the reasons we could push for the use of a tablet in school. For the equivalent of SATs, there has been talk of him having to travel to another school to take them due to accommodation of assistive devices, but that is a long way off.

If I could show you how awful my two sons writing was I'm sure you would be impressed. Every single parent/teacher meeting started with a comment about their writing.
I think writing skills are important and I am sure my boys lost marks in exams due to their writing but it didn't hold them back at uni or in their careers at all.

Cursive is quicker (obviously only if done correctly and not in OPs sons case by the sounds of it). But thinking about having to pick your pen up off the paper after every letter and put it back down… over a single word it barely makes a difference. But over an essay in exam situation can make a difference. This is the logic at least of why they make kids do cursive. Plus with muscle memory they start young to ingrain it.

in OPs sons case it’s probably worth dropping it now as presumably he’ll get a better score by the examiner being able to read his writing than otherwise although might lose some in the handwriting… he’ll probably develop his own hybrid cursive and non cursive style. But he needs to break the p looking like e if he wants to succeed. Surely a chat with his teacher on how best to do this is needed.