To say this is not a 6yr olds handwriting?

[ItsAHardKn0ckLife1]

news.sky.com/story/swindon-town-fc-search-for-fan-who-wrote-to-the-club-saying-he-could-not-afford-to-go-to-matches-12542987

This is surely an adult pretending to write like a child?

All children write differently and some neater than others.
This is my ds writing at 6 year old. Its neater than mine!

When my older dc were 6, they didn't write this neat. Some schools also put more emphasis on neat writing than others.

You can't say its definitely not a 6 year olds writing, when you have only your own 6 year old to compare it to.

It’s not how neat it is though, as I posted up thread, my son’s 6 year old writing was neater. It’s the non-phonetic error, the letter formation suggesting a well-established hand with an obvious attempt to mix it up and make it look messy. There’s no crossings out, no runner marks.

The 6 does look changed as well - as though another number was written and they changed their mind. A 6 year old called Joe will need to be produced though!

@Fizbosshoes

I thought it looked like a 7 changed to a 6?

(Although I'm not sure why you'd amend the age?)

Written by a dad who forgot how old his son is!

Bookworm

That's a perfect example of textbook writing. Young kids tend to either write like they are copying the writing practice sheets precisely or they are wobbly all over the place.

The writing in the letter has a lot of little flourishes. These are things we tend to add as we get older and more confident. Like the way the tail of the y flicks up. That's not something little kids tend to do.

@ItsAHardKn0ckLife1

I know, I know, I’m a cynical old goat

Did wonder what an adult would gain from it but nowt as queer as folk as they say!

I haven’t heard that saying for years! My Nan used to say it all the time

That’s definitely an adult pretending to be a child. Probably to get in the papers!

If you look closely i think it says 8 1/2 (8 is just written badly) also makes more sense with the handwriting and the fact by that age they don't have free school meals.

I think it could possibly be written by an 8 year old.

Agreed! My DS is 6 and doesn't write like that and his teacher said his writing is good

Yes it looks like scrawled adults writing, like mine when I'm in a hurry or an adult trying to look like a child's writing imo. I work with 6 year olds in a classroom and tbh some have beautiful writing far neater than that but you can still tell it's a child's.

@welliewarmer

The fact there's no address and no stamp though makes me think they're not looking to gain anything

Social media fame: always likely that this would go viral

All children write differently and some neater than others.This is my ds writing at 6 year old. Its neater than mine!

That's very impressive writing for a 6 year old.

However, the writing in the example isn't particularly neat but it is very fluent. The writing of someone who has been writing for years and has developed their own style. Some of the letters are formed and others are not as if it has been written quickly - if you look at the first 2 'to's and letter 'a' on 'any'. The letters are joined by being so close together but it is not actually joined writing. Most of the words are spelt correctly without any thought - you would expect a gap as a child this age ponders or asks the spelling - especially in a word like doesn't. The actual spelling mistakes could be genuine!

who knows dont judge, my handwriting is fucking terrible and could easily pass as a 5 year olds

@Wam90

I think it’s more upsetting that either way the 6 and a half year old knows that his mum can’t afford food 😢

You know the general theory is that is faked??

Bloody hell

Both my DC were writing like that at 6 and a half to 7. (It says the child is 6 and a half on the letter.)

Some children are just more advanced than others.

@nolongersurprised

This my DS’s My Dinosaur Dairy at 6 years. Fairly neat writing, Australian and not cursive but errors make sense phonetically. “Somthing” as a good example.

Never mind his writing, I want to know what happens after the dinosaur eats the fern!

Load of bollocks. It's an adult's handwriting.

I've spent enough years going through thousands of documents written by adults, children and medical professionals (yes, I could decipher the consultants' handwriting) through working in insurance, the NHS and in education to be able to tell the difference.

Being at my most optimistic, it's an adult writing a six year old's words. But in my normal headspace, it's an adult pretending to be a six year old to get a fuss made in the media and possibly a nice bit of crowdfunding carried out on their behalf.

Being at my most optimistic, it's an adult writing a six year old's words. But in my normal headspace, it's an adult pretending to be a six year old to get a fuss made in the media and possibly a nice bit of crowdfunding carried out on their behalf.

It screams adult pretending to be child to me as the standard of its adults genuine writing of dictation then you'd expect them to take more care. As genuine writing that's like something that has been scrawled in a hurry

@SmellinOfTroy

Bloody hell

How predictable!

I've seen another today, someone posting on twitter that his gran had her life savings nicked at a cash point by ' two black youths all dressed in black' , followed by a sob story of how it was grannys first day out after two years isolating etc etc..

Yep, a crowd funder was set up almost immediately by ' flag shaggers' triggered by the ' black youths' bit , despite the story having more holes than a sieve.

That looks like the writing of an adult with poor literacy skills using their dominant hand to me.

I’d guess that anyone faking the spelling would have gone for one of the alternatives already in the thread - skool, scool. Schol is the sort of spelling mistake you’d get from not learning to spell it through phonics. I don’t think it’s the first spelling you’d go for if you were trying to fake the spelling but it’s also probably not the spelling a 6 or 8 year old would go for these days unless they’d been given it as a sight wordto learn.

I don’t think you can rule out a child dictating it to an adult. And I suspect a lot of 6 year olds and most 8 year olds would be better at getting the letters sitting on the line.

Hm. No, that doesn't look like something written by a 6-year-old. I find it very doubtful.

Definitely not a six year old! Spacing, spelling and letter-formation are all wrong. I work with 7/8 year olds and this writing would be beyond them.

3 and a half thousand pounds
Some people have a lot more money than sense (and I expect many of them haven’t actually got much money so even less sense)

How does it work if child isn’t found, or the set up version

What happens to the money?

I was sceptical too, to be honest! KS1 children are all able to have FSM, at least in England. The neat handwriting is rare at that age, and it’s all very neatly on the lines.
And the 1/2 bit. Seems overkill - like when I draw a silly picture of a house with curly smoke coming out of the chimney and sign it “Emmeline, 41 3/4” 😄