...is this true - joined up writing in reception now a requirement

[Eve]

friend who is a teacher in England tells me that new guidelines (from who elase but this great Govt) say that for reception children they need to start

• joined up writing
• use capitals and full stops.

If so.... time to start a rebellion!! Whatever happened to learning through play!

It's tied in with the new synthetic phonics teaching as well, as dictation ( and therefore writing) is a large part of that, and a cursive script helps the "flow" .
"Flow" also goes some way to preventing the reversals and inaccurate letter formations that beginning writers are prone to and therefore cuts back on demoralising unlearning/relearning of "inaccurate" writing in the junior years, and of course it's faster, if you can write on automatic pilot youve got more spare brain capacity to think about the content of what you are writing. hth.

Sorry but it really annoys me - why do some schools teach pre-cursive i.e. starting each letter on the line and finishing it on the line from the start and others teach starting at the top to just do letters in reception and then move on to pre-cursive? or have I got this wrong. I thought we had a national curriculum in this country - why aren't all children taught the same?

I was taught joined up writing at (state)infants school.

Was taught from reception, I joined the school in Y1 and it took me ages to catch up.

ds changed school in year 1, his old school did printing his new school started joined up in year R. He learnt joined up very quickly at the new school and he prefers joined up, he can write quicker, looks nice and he enjoys it.

One of his class mates left in year 2 to join my ds's old school and returned after a few weeks as the teacher had told him to write the same as the other children (e.g. not joined up) So that she could teach him all over again at the pace of the rest of the class.

DD was taught 'the flicky bits' much lower down the school, forget when. She doesn't do it now. She doesn't join up - it's commented on in her report this year - but as I said before it doesn't effect the quality or her writing - and she also writes plenty and neatly.

Private school though so perhaps no necessarily constrained by NC. And quite happy to give her Level 5 for English.

Think it's better to learn pre-cursive from day one tbh. Dd struggled as it was, and learning printing in year R, then changing to pre-cursive in year 1 before she'd properly got the hang of printing was confusing for her and in turn annoying for me as I was dealing with the 'I can't do it' tears. I complained at the time and they agreed. Teachers just teach what they're told to though, so not their fault. However, they said that from the following year pre-cursive would be taught from the beginning, so somewhere along the line someone finally caught on that changing things after only a year wasn't a great idea . Much more sensible to start as you mean to carry on!

I'm with SueW. I never learnt to do joined-up writing (I think this was a combination of poor teaching in that department and my own left-handedness) and it never did me any harm!

Aero - this is what I am worried is going to happen to my DD although I am going to find out over the next couple of weeks and will be questionning it if they do it that way. Its not really good enough to say teachers are doing what they are told perhaps this is why things aren't done as well as they could be. I don't believe that primary teachers just sit back and do what they are told.

DS1 coming to the end of reception, and loves doing his big flicks. He isn't the worlds best 5 yo writter, but just loves them flicks and corrects me. It's not a chore, it's just the way it is for them.

writer even, shall now go and pour another glass. hic.

Haven't read the thread in detail but in response to the OP, my DS goes to a school which is really big on learning through play. Apparently he goes to one of the schools (in Wales where we are) which is trialling a new Foundation Phase curriculum using this principle. It's supposed to be quite forward thinking. DS still learned basic letter formation with flicky bits as a pre cursor to joined up writing. He doesn't seem to have struggled at all but it does seem funny that he was doing almost copperplate handwriting at the age of 5.

dd2 hardly writes (ending reception) but when she does it is pre-cursive

Don't know if anyione has mentioned it but it is supposed to be easier for kids with dyspraxia/poor control to write in cursive as it doesn't involve as much stopping and starting

DD is in reception year and she does not do joined up writing. The letter formation is pre cursive type writing, so has the tails on for joining up later. But no expectation whatsoever for joined up writing now, not at her school anyway. DD does know to use a Capital letter at the starts of sentences, and full stops at the end - but TBH at school they only started this bit formally since Easter when they began doing more independent writing.

The entry strokes really confuse some dyslexic learners - ds was taught at school that all joined letters start on the line - not true - so he had to unlearn this later because his writing was hard to read (looked like it had lots of extra u letters in it. Letter strings and flow of cursive writing really do help dyslexic learners and I would prefer early letter formation to have only the flicks at the end.

The school I taught at used to do the entry strokes and it made everything so much more complicated and untidy. After much badgering we finally got the Head to change to just flicks at the end.

aintnomountainhighenough - most teachers would agree that they should do what's right but unfortunately they get into trouble if they're not "doing as they're told". Also who is to say what is right? I'm sure at least every 10 teachers have a different opinion on it all. Most teachers take the guidelines as just that and adapt it to individual children but unfortunately there has to be some toeing of the line.

DS1's school took part in some dyslexia research which concluded that cursive style was better for the reasons others have already mentioned. The jolly phonics sheets were adapted to pre-cursive style, and now, at theend of Reception year, some of the children are writing fully joined up.

I started with cursive. But school starts at 6 in Italy, when the majority of children will be ready to do it.

swedishmum - DD's school only does the end tails/flicks, not the starting ones.