Writing and primary - what age?

[Ojjjjnv]

Ds is n primary school and has just written this about today. What age/primary year do you think this is?

Yr 1.

Have taught Year 2 up to Year 6 with writing not dissimilar to this so tbh could be any age. I'd say Y3 or above due to the handwriting, not the formation but the spacing and consistency of sizing. The sentences are not well structured but it reads like some sort of holiday journal where they're not focusing on ensuring there is a fronted adverbial or varied conjunctions but just getting it done ASAP so they can play!

So in answer to the question- it was written completely independently. Yes, it's a summer journal.

Ds just finished year 1 but we got told he is behind and we really need to work on his writing over the summer. However, I've not really seen anyone else's work so can't compare. He does go to quite an academic school.

I can't compare if he is behind as my just finished Y2 is dyslexic so his writing is way better than that! I would say its about average though.

End of year 1

Year 1. The way they spelt watched- watcht. Gave it away. Plus the use of full stops and capitals.

From a spelling point of view it seems pretty good for a year 1. But the letters are not formed as I think they would want-particularly in preparation for joined up handwriting. So I think it would be more of a handwriting than a spelling/ sentence formation issue

They probably just want a bit of practice to minimise the impact of the summer holidays.

I teach year 1, in some schools this would have been given expected. As this was independent, other pieces of work with some prior input could be more securely in the expected bracket.
If you wanted to help your child for year 2, I would work on their handwriting. All the letters need to be on the line and ascenders and decenders clear. Also the use of the suffix -ed and using 'and' for joining ideas.

Do they also not teach leadings in your son's school ready for writing joined up in year 2?

Looks pretty good to me but I teach secondary not primary. I would have said Y2 at a guess. For all those talking about handwriting - please know that come secondary one of the biggest issues we have is kids who have been forced to joined up and as a result their writing at speed is basically illegible. Parents please know that legibility is king and at secondary we don't care 2 jots how they achieve that legibility- printing, joined up or mix of the two. No marks at GCSE for special joined up writing but plenty to be lost by children whose writing is illegible and would be so much clearer if they just printed their letters or did mix of two styles.

We don't get much info from the school on what they do. But they have high expectations. What are 'leadings'?

Interestingly my DC had writing like this at the end of yr 1 and end of yr report was GDS for writing. I am not a teacher so maybe they were happy with content??. Also goes to an academic state school. Clearly what passes varies greatly between schools.

The flicks before and after words to get them ready for writing joined up, your DS school might be different to ours and introduce it in year 2

I’m a Year 1/2 teacher. The content and spelling is fine for year 1 but I would imagine the school expect better letter formation. They will be starting to join in year 2 and currently there is quite a mixture of sizing, spacing between letters and mix of capitals/lower case which might make that tricky. Also I would be looking for a bit more ‘interest’ e.g some adjectives, connectives (because, so etc).

OP the issue is more letter formation than anything. Several t's look like they are back to front, f's not always formed correctly and you can just tell the letters arent being formed in a fluid motion as they should be, so for eg 'a' should be started at the top, go anticlockwise down round and back to the top to join the circle, then straight back down to give it a tail. 'n' it looks like they are starting at the bottom and just looping up and down but they should start at the top, straight down then back up and over. If they arent starting the letter at the right point they don't achieve the same fluidity and joining later is tough.

Take no notice op. Prep schools put huge emphasis on these early skills and they are just that: early skills. Even if it was a 2 year old, it would still be rubbish for a 15 year old. They all have a long way to go at this age and first out of the gate is seldom first across the finish line. The brighter children aren’t much impressed by this kind of work IME!

Focus on handwriting over the summer.

Lead in stroke is what a pp was referring to for when children are taught to write in joined up or cursive script later on from Y2 usually. Some schools don't teach this though. But I agree correct letter formation and size, writing on the lines and not mixing up upper and lower case letters are still important to learn.

I think it looks pretty average to be honest and really wouldn’t be worried. He is spelling things as they sound but that just shows a good grasp of phonics. End of Y1, so very newly 6? In some European countries they don’t even start school until 6 and know nothing about phonics, reading or writing until about 7.

It can't be that academic because they're not teaching cursive from the get go which a lot of more academic schools do

I wish my DC had not learned cursive from the get go before side my DS has really messy rushed writing because of it

I can't say it stands out as particularly bad

My DS hated writing but he's a bright academic boy in in maths and science so I wouldn't get worried quite yet

Some DC just hate being forced to write things down like a journal my DS hated it.

DD not so bothered and happy to write

Year 2

Phonetics do get in the way at this age

Just go over it with him on a separate piece of paper and spell the words correctly

(This is probably what other parents do and get them to write it correctly in their journal after anyway)

https://www.pegasusacademytrust.org/curriculum/writing-and-handwriting/handwriting

I hope this helps

I think that’s quite good for the end of year 1 to be honest.