Not sure whether to be bothered by this...

[PassTheTwiglets]

DD (8yo, Y3) has dreadful handwriting but the content of her work is excellent and she's way above average in that. Her teacher is concerned that her handwriting doesn't match the level of her literacy skills - but they are 2 vastly different skills, surely?! Why do they have to be at the same level? The teacher said "I just don't know what to do about her handwriting" - but she's the (very experienced) teacher, shouldn't it be her job to know what to do or am I expecting too much there? DD hasn't got great coordination, she's not very good at art, both me and DH both had dreadful handwriting as school - tbh I'd be surprised if she did have good handwriting skills! I was also bothered by the fact that the teacher said she looked at some of DDs work and, because the writing was so bad, she expected it to be a poor piece of work but she was then very surprised when the content turned out to be excellent. I don't feel this should have been a surprise either - DD has always excelled in literacy and her teacher should know that she's good at it, so why the surprise? She also had DD placed in the top maths group for ages before realising that she struggles with maths and moved her down a group, which also irritates me. But that's another issue :)

It just seems to me that (a) the teacher should know her class's abilities a bit better and (b) she's placing too much emphasis on handwriting. Of course handwriting is important but they're only 8 - surely they'll get better given time?

Would you be concerned about this? (either about the teacher's attitude or about the bad handwriting!) Do I need to do anything or just ignore it?

Spanky, she got a level 3 at the end of KS1 (her last teacher thought her writing was no problem at all, strangely). That's a great tip about triangle pencils, thank you.

LoopyLoops, I don't think she's tried anything, tbh, other than just reminding DD to try and be neat.

I would also use a B or 2B pencil rather than a HB as it moves more smoothly across the paper

My dd has dyslexia and dyspraxia and her school have been doing speed up with her. I think it's really helping. She is nine though and her handwriting has had a huge impact on her work up until now.

Speed Up is from the same author as Write from the start and probably more suitable for slightly older children depending on needs.

Children's fine motor control develops at different rates so sometimes it's a question of waiting until physically the child is ready. Does your daughter do other fine motor tasks easily (stringing small beads, picking up tiny objects)? If so then it is a question of practice to improve her handwriting. The trick is to make at least some of the mastery of a physical skill (which involves boring practice) into fun. After practicing the formation of a, for example, try using a stop watch and calling the exercises silly names e.g. "The great one minute A procession" and then get her to write as many near perfect copies of the letter A in one minute - draw a graph together to let her see how her speed will improve over time even though she is maintaining neatness. If she is practicing writing words then choose words or character names from a favourite story - or spend two minutes a day copying out a paragraph or two from a story she enjoys.

For the secondary school curriculum your daughter will need to be writing at about 20 words a minute (legibly!) so it's a good idea to start sorting it now.

I would also get her touch typing www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ The creativity of children with handwriting difficulties is often limited by the struggle to get ideas on paper. Typing will allow her creativity to flow unhindered while the handwriting problem is resolved.

Our DD's handwriting was truly awful but we managed to get it sorted out before she went to secondary school. Five or ten minutes every day is the key.

I think if a child gets to the age of 8 and has marked fine motor problems a referral to an OT should have been made.

My son and daughter's writing became drastically better in Y3. They both went from messy print to even, neat cursive in a really short amount of time. I was told that children usually have the physical ability to produce good handwriting by age 7ish which is why it is common for children in Y2/3 see a big improvement in writing.

In Y2 my children both seemed to focus on the quantity of writing but in Y3 they both started focusing on presentation. They had different teachers so maybe it is school policy or a coincidence that they both improved in Y3?
My dd does a lot of fine motor activities like hama beads and loves colouring in so maybe this helped her handwriting?