to think my son's handwriting (at 11) is really quite bad?

[PenNPaper]

I'm not knocking my son, im just genuinely wondering if it's bad. Some teachers claim that it could be neater, but they are still able to read it. Im actually struggling to!

Just wondering if this is actually quite average for his age? I'd have assumed a little neater.

Looks legible to me...

Autocorrect tried to change that to eligible which would be all kinds of wrong.

It looks OK to me, definitely readable, spelling and punctuation all good. My 10 year old's writing is far, far worse.

Don't know what's normal for 11 year olds but it's completely legible to me.

It's better than mine

Oh okay! I'll be quite and a little less frustrated with him!

*quiet

He joins well - although the the O needs some work - forming a C then tracing back over and round to get the O shape -

I can read it which is more then can be said for my 11 year olds - Handwritting does it appear to be a priority for schools

Total readable to me. It's a bit wibbly

Try googling for fine motor skills, lots of finger strengthening exercises are good for handwriting like paper cutting, sewing etc. To be honest I've jus looked at the younger age for that kind of exercise, bet there are different suggestions for older children. Painting Warhammer perhaps?

Just asked my just turned 12 year old Ds how old the writer of it might be & he shrugged and said 11 so it's probably pretty typical!

Better than mine too.

Perfectly legible and to be frank that's all it needs to be.

If my ds's, also 11, handwriting looked like that I'd be overjoyed! His has got worse now he's in y7 because they're expected to write more quickly and he can't do quick and neat apparently.

Here

It's better than mine. My cursive handwriting is unreadable, I print everything except my signature now.

Here

How quick is he writing? It was at this age DS1 started to use a laptop at school his was similar to that picture. It transformed him and his spelling, his hands where just to slow for his words so missed out letters or compete words.

He's quite slow with it, but I'm not sure. Teacher says that he doesn't finish writing down what he's asked to/or tasks that need doing.

It looks OK - I can read it :o

What does he write with though? We're in Germany and they care A Lot about handwriting at primary here, and DS was always getting a very hard time about his handwriting while he wrote in pencil - primary teachers here can't see past the handwriting and don't seem to care about the content much until the writing is perfect. Once he started writing in fountain pen his writing became very beautiful :o and it is never mentioned any more. I'm glad we don't have those stupid "pen licences" some UK schools appear to do, as he'd never have got one whilst still writing in pencil! I know people hate fountain pens now and it might not be allowed anyway, but can he use a nice pen (not a biro)? It might have a positive effect. Worth a try if he is still writing in pencil.

Why are you bothered? I have shit writing. I also have a double first from Cambridge. I'd rather have the latter than a neatest handwriting certificate.

It looks fine to me (i teach Primary). I think neat handwriting is a massively over-rated skill - once you leave school it doesn't actually matter at all.

It looks okay to me. It also looks like he's following a school handwriting scheme that perhaps doesn't suit him. This is the age he should be developing his own style. Maybe he needs to let go of the school scheme?

It looks better than my 11 year old's.
Or most of my adult students too. Sigh!

I'd say that's fairly average for an 11 year old. Some are significantly better. Some are significantly worse. In my experience the only thing that will improve his handwriting is him deciding he wants to improve his handwriting. If you can crack that it actually improves pretty rapidly. You can download handwriting practise sheets from the Internet or buy cheap books from supermarkets if he does want to practise & I'd recommend little & often for quickest improvements.

I wish my 10 year olds looked anywhere near that good

It is much much much better than my DB's ever was (or is now and he'll be 47 this year). He had to tape his written work at secondary school and have time allowances or a scribe for exams, but he's much the brightest of the family. Computers were a god send for him.

AS others have suggested it would be worth trying different pens / pencils for him. My handwriting is only really passable if I write with a very fine Pilot GTec4 pen or a particular sort of automatic pencil which automatically sharpens the lead as you write so I buy them in bulk now. (Nothing to do with me loving stationery...)

I admit he always tries to write non joined. However, school keeps telling him he must