Joined up writing in Y1?

[zam72]

My DS is just 5 and has started in Y1 this term. Seemed to have taken to Y1 pretty well - very enthusiastic about going in and how the day's been. Yesterday at bedtime he ended up in tears saying how he prefered his old class as he can't do 'joined up writing'??? Do they really do joined up writing in Y1!!!??? I learnt that at 10yo?? Has my DS got it mixed up or do they really teach joined up writing (given his printed text and reading aren't brill to start with) at 5yo?? If so, why?! He said he doesn't know the words he's meant to be writing and the teacher's too busy to help (class of ~26).

He find reading and writing pretty tough - neither are coming easily to him but he is progressing. But he's a bit of a perfectionist and although we praise him and are happy with him he seems to know what writing 'should' look like and knows his isn't the exact same, so its wrong, so therefore will give up.

Any thoughts appreciated. I'm going to speak to the teacher tomorrow but just wanted to know whether DS could be right and they do teach it that early - or whether I just need to talk about him finding normal writing challenging at the moment.

At our school they start full on joined up writing in Y2 however by the end of year one they are writing with all the extra bits on the letters (for want of a better word) ready to take the next step in Y2.
My dd has just gone into Y1, her writing is average (she attained early years goals) and I can now see all the extra bit coming on but they are not expected to have to form of each letter down until July.
I am not sure about the merit in joined up writing, there was no real stress on it when I was at primary back in the 80s however I am told that it helps with spelling among other things, I am just of the feeling now that I will let the school get on with it without questioning after all it is an outstanding ofsted and good KS2 results yet is still a happy school with eager children, they support my dd's SEN fantastically and stretch the most able, they are getting something right and if doing joined up writing is part of that over all picture so be it!

Just a point, there are no marks at SATs for joined up writing, that is a myth. as long as the hand writing is legible it matters not if it is joined or printed.

jaded, I've taught at schools in SE13!?!

Actually I agree - if you teach the children how to form the letters early on with the "joins" in the right places, adn how to make a "m" be written from top stroke down and to the two hills, it makes it a hell of a lot easier and less complicated for the children when they do joined up writing for realy, rather than children learning just to write an "m" and then having to be retold it needs to be written in a special way to join.

until I saw it recently, thought it was a little crazy, but now can see why schools do it early on.

Many schools teach joined up from day 1 - our school did from reception.

Very different to my dad's day, when they waited until year 6 to start!

But my point is WHY are schools concentrating on this so early on? Don't they have faith in the children? Surely they should just be focusing on the alphabet and producing the letters correctly at this stage. I can't remember learning cursive writing from the age of 5 and I must say my handwriting is very legible. Just a British obsession, I think.

Level 3

Pupils' writing is often organised, imaginative and clear. The main features of different forms of writing are used appropriately, beginning to be adapted to different readers. Sequences of sentences extend ideas logically and words are chosen for variety and interest. The basic grammatical structure of sentences is usually correct. Spelling is usually accurate, including that of common, polysyllabic words. Punctuation to mark sentences - full stops, capital letters and question marks - is used accurately. Handwriting is joined and legible.

writing attainment

Ours are encouraged to join up right from the very outset.

My ds is 6, nearly 7, and is quite severely dyspraxic; he is seeing a private O.T regularly. As well as all his other motor skills exercises, he is doing pen control exercises with her that involve cursive writing, as it is apparently easier for him to do than print his letters, it has really helped. Maybe it is a good thing.

DD did pre cursive in reception (printing but with the tails and flicks, etc. and then joined up cursive from Y1.

I work in a Y1 class. We begin to teach joined up after Christmas.

Apparently joining up makes spelling patterns stick better, can be beneficial in independent writing, better for children with dyslexia, etc.

DD's school started to teach joined up in reception!!!!
i thought that this was a bit much but dd loves it and now at the start of year 1 writes joined up alll the time. It does help with speed and fluency of the writing.

But although they start to practice it they should not be forcing children to do it in their writing. There are alot of children in year 2 dont use joined up most of the time and are not epected to use it until theya re happy with it.

i would speak to the teacher about your concerns as its not some thing that is worth your son being upset over.

Well my kids will probably learn both. In Australia they started with Victorian Modern Cursive and they stick to it all the way through. It's never bothered mine. I know my daughter got a bit of stick in the early days here for doing her "b's" differently but hey ho. I bought a couple of hand writing practises with CD back in Australian and I'll probably use the sheets up and explain to the kids that they are a couple of ways of doing certain letters. At the end of the day it has improved their fine motor skills but during the holidays I'll be doing 10 mins each day to try and encourage a better pencil grip (which tends not to get picked up at school much). I do think that is just as important as which font etc they are using....... Just my view of course and I'm not a teacher....

We started practising joined writing in year 1, but not using it for spelling tests. DD was an average to below average speller in year 1. Switch to year 2 joined up writing used all the time and we are encouraged to practice spellings with joined up writing and we have become a 10\10 speller. In this house it has really helped with spelling we used to practice every night to get 4 to 6 out of ten and struggle to recall beyond the test. now we practice three nights a week get 10\10 and when spellings are checked in sentances a few weeks later she can still remember how to spell them. I wish we had done cursive since reception life would have been better around here.

To join or not to join in reception! It depends on the child and how well they progress with their fine motor skills. The most important thing is to learn the correct letter formation first. Without this you are heading for untidy handwriting later down the road. The handwriting books in the shops didn't appeal to us as they didn't have much room to practise the joins. DD's school recommended www.morrellshandwriting.co.uk They were brilliant and simple to use, but effective and DD's handwriting is beautiful. We started on book 1 and now we are on book 4. Book 2 and 3 have been brilliant as they show all the different joins using everyday words. DD loves them!

Joined up writing is definitely not just a British obsession -- if anything, British schools are pretty laid back about the handwriting styles kids use.

In most of Europe kids have a very specific writing style that they MUST use from the start -- German kids have to start with <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.sheilalowe.com/images/German.gif&imgrefurl=www.sheilalowe.com/support.php&usg=__MDFj-21pIyAAj-bO0KeFyZLUGlI=&h=1486&w=1432&sz=35&hl=en&start=0&sig2=kHbKnB6b_lfljipqlZaQMQ&zoom=1&tbnid=OY0NU-lCqjJ2rM:&tbnh=131&tbnw=126&ei=xvD9TNyeOsmbhQfij5XMCQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgerman%2Bhandwriting%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1420%26bih%3D699%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=302&oei=xvD9TNyeOsmbhQfij5XMCQ&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=35&ved=1t:429,r:27,s:0&tx=29&ty=56" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this writing style, joined up from the start, and it's enforced very strongly, so that it will be marked wrong if the letters aren't formed properly.

The French equivalent looks <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.schoolfonts.com/printnew/_CharSetDNCursive.gif&imgrefurl=www.schoolfonts.com/cursive-font-blockletter/_CursiveHandwriting.html&h=770&w=600&sz=42&tbnid=wYgtlpO6JnxY2M:&tbnh=142&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfrench%2Bhandwriting&zoom=1&q=french+handwriting&hl=en&usg=_MWzE2oPAsru2d8DNDObADbXSPLM=&sa=X&ei=b_H9TJNaypqFB6D-J8L&ved=0CCQQ9QEwAg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">like this, and again they take no prisoners in terms of enforcing the prescribed style.

Currently for part of my timetable I teach in Year 6 and it is a nightmare to try to get the children to learn cursive handwriting because they have already picked up so many bad habits. I'm constantly hearing 'Oh I forgot to join' 'How do you write a k?' and many more similiar comments. If they had learned to join from Reception then they would be so much better. In addition, the spelling of these children is terrible and we are currently having to do so much work on this. If they had been joining the words much earlier, then in many cases the brain would have memorised the joining pattern and therefore the children would have been much further on.

Ours learnt cursive writing from Reception.

Mine learnt cursive in reception and Year 1, but changed schools in Year 2 and wasnt allowed to join letters up. Now struggles to form basic letters the correct way because all letters still start from the bottom. Printing is diabolical but cursive isnt as good as it would have been if allowed to continue.

I now wish that reception and year 1 had introduced both styles of writing so that kids understand that letters start in different places depending on how they are writing.

Blimey! I work in a yr 1 class and most of the children can't even form the letters properly let alone join them up!!!!

They are taught cursive writing but are miles away from anything more than that.

My ds is in yr 6 and a friend of his is really struggling with joining her letters and prefers to print. Her mum is worried as the sats are fast approaching but the class teacher told her not to worry and that it didn't matter as she would only lose one point for failing to display joined up writing. If yr 6 aren't concerned about it then why on earth are children being pushed towards doing it in reception?!!!!

Rainbowstardrops - For all the reasons stated above e.g. good presentation and helps support spelling. There is a huge benefit for children using joined writing.

Think about it logically:

1. Children are taught how to write letters by printing
2. They are then becoming masters at putting these in the correct places e.g. Capitals/lower case.
3. They then have to unlearn how the learned originally in order to join by suddenly putting the joins in.
4. The children then have to relearn all of the above and learn to differentiate between what they learned about printing and joining.

It's much easier if you just teach the children to join in the first place and therefore they don't have to 'unlearn'. I always think printed writing looks particularly messy, especially when they get further up the school.

As for why Yr6 aren't bothered about it. Well unfortunately yes it maybe only one mark lost in the SATS but in day to day work if writing is always presented in a scruffy way it gives off a bad impression.

Printing requires far more effort than joined handwriting rainbowstardrops. I would be worried about a teacher with such an attitude to be honest. Education is much more than one mark in a test.

Mrz I agree with that! It takes teaching to the test to a whole new level if you would only teaching handwriting if it was graded highly.