to think that handwriting in infants (school) doesnt really matter

[laptopdancer]

that much?

I mark university exams and Msc scripts and can tell you it has no bearing on academic ability in the future.

Handwriting only accounts for a small percentage of marks in the SAT's BUT fcuk the SATs

Young children need to develop a fluent flowing legible handwriting style so that they can record their learning, thoughts, etc quickly and easily and without having to think about it so that as they get older, they can focus on the content of their writing.

Both my dcs have appalling handwriting which is virtually iliegible. It has hampered their progress. They are now both in secondary school. The school says its too late and they should have had more help in primary. They need to write in exams quickly and legibly. They can't.

In Junior school we were told that the focus was on the content (and given a few handwriting sheets to practice at home) and that letter formation was taught in infants.

Yes, I'd say it does matter in infants.

The handwriting component in a SATs paper is worth about 3 marks. It reflects that fluent handwriting is a useful tool.

exactly bigTillyMint.

Agreed Original.

Give them good skills to start with I say. My handwriting is large and scrawly (albeit legible) in exams but I can also write very nicely if I need to. Developing your own style later is fine but you need to be able to do it right first.

I mark professional exam scripts, and the handwriting does matter - if it's just difficult to read I struggle to remain objective and reward correct points with marks, because the effort to interpret the handwriting irritates me so much. I do remain objective however - the real problem comes when I literally can't read someone's writing.

On the other hand, I read for a talking newspaper for people with visual impairments, and we get handwritten notes in from our listeners - these are older people who would have been taught handwriting very strictly as children, and even now, in old age when they can't SEE their own handwriting, it is legible, in some cases even quite beautiful.

Don't know really.
With dd1 they spent a log time concentrating on handwriting in year 1 and I thought they were being silly. However she now has beautiful handwriting.

When dd2 came along into year 1 I was glad they didn't focus on it as much, however her handwriting is not very neat, readable but not very neat, and it's already causing problems in year 3, where she misreads something, and even more so in maths. However it's much more hassle to get her to rethink her handwriting now than if she had done it in year 1 when she would have not minded doing it.

DS1's infant school didn't bother about handwriting. He's now 13 and his handwriting is appalling. I seriously hope those marking his GCSE / A'level exams can read his scrawl, for what he writes can be brilliant.

Mind you, one of his teachers had written high praise on his work, and it was so messy, I presumed DS had marked his own work.

Handwriting has no bearing on academic ability, but if we can turn out academic people with beautiful handwriting, why not?

Huh, ds1's primary school taught them cursive script from day one Very nice, you might think, but ds1 couldn't cope with it and his handwriting now looks awful - he's 13. We've now had to teach him how to print and just join some of the letter up, which is how most people write.

You can't write quickly enough in cursive script - it's just stupid teaching small children this style. They should be taught to write neatly and that's it.

it pisses me off tbf, I have never joined up my letters, my dad never did, his dad never did, my uncle never did and my ds doesnt either. Our writing is very neat and perfectly legible which is more than i can say for many people who do join their letters up. Especially doctors.

Worth learning to write as best they can when young. Much harder to correct when they're older.

I personally feel good handwriting is important. I don't think it should be over emphasised at such a young age as they're learning so much at once, but it's certainly something that should be encouraged. Those who don't have very good handwriting shouldn't be made to feel bad though - just encouraged to practice as with everything else they learn.