Potentially odd question about secondary school

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So do you still have to do joined up writing in secondary school? DS is going to secondary school in September his joined up writing is practically illegible. They made him persevere as in their words "you "can't pass your sats without joined up writing". Well in the end there wasn't any sats and as he is actually quite capable in other subjects I would hate for him to struggle at secondary because no-one can read what he has written.

My d's is about to go into year 11, so a bit older, his writing is awful, joined up even worse. He will have a laptop for gcse's (if they do them)

I don’t. Are if my students write joined up or not, as long as I can read it.

I don’t write joined up

My 13 year old doesn't join her writing and no ones said anything. It's much neater when she doesn't

I had this concern for my DS when he started secondary. Primary schools put way too much emphasis on it - there is no requirement for cursive writing for GCSEs, therefore most secondary schools don't insist on it.

I teach secondary English. I couldn’t give two hoots whether writing is joined up or not, so long as I can read it and she doesn’t finish any story with the words “and then I woke up” I’m happy.

Thank goodness for that, now we can spend some time over summer un joining his writing so the teachers may stand a chance of reading it in September.

Nope, it just needs to be legible.

The school where I teach has handwriting classes for year 7s identified as needing extra support. They don’t teach them cursive, just how to write so that teachers/examiners can read it.

@WyfOfBathe I really hope they have this where DS is going!

It's a huge advantage if they can write fast -- that's the point of joined-up writing, getting a lot of words down on paper during the exam time allowed.

Dd14's joined up writing is very messy so she's recently started doing non-joined up writing again. Don't think any teachers care and it's much more legible. She writes very fast either way.

No you don't have to join up.

No they don't have to. My year 8 ds had messy handwriting at primary and has now unjoined it and it is much more legible. My year 5 ds also has messy joined up writing. I had a conversation with his teacher about it and she asked about my older son and was very surprised that he didn't need to do joined up writing in secondary.

I’m a secondary teacher. The emphasis on joined up writing in primary schools baffles me. As long as it’s legible, no one will ever mention his writing ever again…!

I’m a secondary teacher and I’ve asked a couple of my students to try not joining up their letters. I think they are so focussed on joining them that it just is impossible to read whereas if they were single letters I could work out what is being said.

Another secondary teacher confirming the consensus- I care it’s legible and once they get to KS4/5 I care that they are capable of writing a lot in a short time period (exams).

The exact style I couldn’t care less about.

I couldn't do joined up writing and I was very slow at it. I did printing all through secondary and even now at work (in my 40s). No one ever said anything about me printing all my words. However, you do need to be able to write quickly and legibly for exams.

What I did find useful was that I practised writing quickly in the summer hols of first year secondary. I would set a timer, write out a paragraph from a book, count the words, and try to improve my word count. I spent about a half an hour a day doing this and found it improved writing speed.

DS1 has awful joined up handwriting. He retaught himself to write fast and not joined up when he went to secondary school, and his handwriting is now legible.

Took him two years of grief from teachers before he tried it so, yes, I'd do it now.

If it's really bad it might be worth getting an occupational therapist to assess his handwriting. My son had this done and has now been given a laptop for schoolwork as his writing was slow and messy. He has finger hypermobility and grip problems.

I teach secondary and I really wish they wouldn't put so much emphasis on cursive at primary. All we care about is that we can read it.

My daughters primary school spent years trying to ‘improve her handwriting ‘ got to the point where she got quite upset over it
She got to secondary school and no one was bothered - much to her relief

The minute ds started secondary school they stopped pestering him to write cursive. His handwriting became more legible when he wasn't focused on joining. It didn't hold him back: he achieved 8s in his English GCSEs, and at the end of each Key Stage teachers asked him for copies of certain work and his notes for certain topics, for them to use as demonstrations of good labour, note-taking etc.

In 6th Form he started joining some letters naturally.

They don't care in my DS's secondary. He's just finishing Y9, awful handwriting despite years of effort/support/nagging on my part, but it's never been mentioned.

@AttaGirrrrl - you would hate my DS! He loves creative writing but is hopeless at time management, so he will get really stuck into a story and then look up and realise he has two minutes to finish it or he'll have to bring it home to do, and I'm sure you can guess what his default emergency exit is! I have told him this is not going to be acceptable at GCSE!

Primary school teacher here and the whole cursive script issue drives us mad too! It is one of the descriptors for writing at the ‘expected standard’ at the end of Key Stage 2 so we have to keep working on it however, as I understand it, if a child really struggles for a specific reason, and has met all the other descriptors, it can be overlooked. If primary teachers had any say in it, I honestly don’t think there would be anywhere near as much emphasis on joining up!

Has he complained that writing makes his hand hurt, is he very slow?
Could be worthwhile referring to an OT to see if hypermobility's the problem.

If so, he could be given a laptop and if that's his usual way of working, he could use it in exams, or be given a scribe and/or have extra time.

I was absolutely rubbish and joined up writing in primary (never got my pen licence ). When I got to secondary I was terrified but was very relieved in my first English lesson when the teacher said to forgot all about how we wrote in primary and just write whichever way is comfortable. Believe it or not I always get comments on how neat my unjoined writing is, I do tend to quickly join my writing when writing fast but it’s not the “correct way” just what’s quick for me. No one cares basically and I don’t understand the big fuss over it in primary schools.