Is it normal in Y1 to have to write a whole page?

[MooM00]

DC1 is in Y1 and when I've seen his writing it is a whole page of illegible gap free scrawl. I remember being in year 2(long time ago) and only writing one or 2 lines for 'news' and the teacher coming round to correct it. DC1 doesn't leave gaps between words and nobody stops him but the teacher tells him to 'finish' his work. When he writes at home I make him stop and correct it if he hasn't left a gap before the next word.
Is the idea that they just write freely and eventually it will improve? Should I just let him get on with it?It doesn't seem right to me to allow him to carry on doing something wrong but am I missing the point?

yes, I'm pretty sure that when DD was in Yr1, her teacher told me that they would be required to do this. Someone will probably come along in a bit and point you to exactly the correct bit of the NC.

A whole page was the goal when DS was in yr1. Spent a lot of time correcting him that writing is not something 'only girls are good at' Approaching the end of yr2 now he sometimes manages that (averagely able!).

Think at ds school they are pretty hot at getting them to use finger spaces. [Year 1].
However my ds not keen writer and would not choose to write a page. [3x lines at a push].
Do know others write more happily than him [especially girls!].

if there were spaces between the words could you read any of it?
can he read it? Does he know what he's written? are any words spelt right?
imo children nearing the end of Y1 should be taught to leave spaces, use some full stops and spell many frequent words correctly, eg the, and, went, to ,with etc and making an attempt to spell new words phonetically.
If he thinks the point of it is to 'write' a whole page then he cant really be blamed if its illegible, rushed and messy.
You should definitely talk to the teacher about your concerns, ask her when she looks through the work (hopefully with the child while he's doing it so any comments can be given immediately) and how he knows what he has to do to improve.

He has trouble reading it efeslight, most of the words are spelt right (he finds spelling and reading easy) but he is a reluctant writer and the teacher just goes on about how 'painstaking' he is, and how he wants to get everything right.It doesn't seem to me that he's getting it right but also he's so 'nearly there' that I want to nag him and don't really understand why he is even attemting to write whole pages when he clearly hasn't mastered the finger space yet. Dc1 says the teacher never reads it through with him. She never corrects his maths with him either, she does it all later.She's fine as a teacher and he gets on with her okay.
So should I nag him or leave him to it?

yes

I work in a Y1 class. We have different targets for different children, fom 2 or 3 sentences to a page of A4. It also depends on their writing size at this age.

However, quantity is of much less importance to us than the quality of what they write. We are looking for use of capital letters, full stops and finger spacing. We look for their use of phonics in their spellings and if they can use connectives to link their ideas togetehr. We look at letter formation.

Much rather have 4 or 5 sentences nicely wirtten, using correct puncation and spacing and with phonetically spelled sentences.

Well I wouldn't nag, but I'd think of some fun ways to help with any homework or writing he does at home. Using an iced gem biscuit as a gap "measurer" between words comes to mind! You could say that he gets to eat the biscuit if he does the whole sentence with gaps between words, capitals and full stop. Then have a new biscuit for the next sentence!

The biscuit idea is a good one. The only writing he brings home is individual words but recently I've been asking him to write them into sentences(and opened this can of worms).

You could maybe start a "project" of some sort over the holiday to help him practise writing with gaps. Find something he is really interested in and make a book about it. You could use the "biscuit" idea for spacing, but I'd also only get him to write a few sentences at a time. I'd try and make it as much fun as possible rather than a chore. Children usually really like it if parents join in with something, so maybe you could make a book together. You could work on loose leaf pages and put it in a binder. You could do a page and he could do one, or he writes a couple of sentences and you write a paragraph. Include drawings, cut out pictures (from internet) and photos etc. It is also really good if it can be based round "doing" stuff (that the parent also joins in with).

Some ideas (off the top of my head- but you obviously know what will interest your ds)
"How to make cup cakes"
"Things you can make out of Lego"
" Different dens to build in the garden"
"A story about my little brother/sister/cousin"

If you are focusing and word gaps and capitals/full stops, I'd not worry over much about spellings at the same time. If you focus on too much at once it can cause frustration!

My ds is in Y1 and they often exhibit their work on the walls for parents to see: what I did in the hols, how I could improve etc.

The range of ability is huge. Some are barely legible 2 line scrawls with poor spelling, a couple are a full page of neatly written, well spelt sentences. The majority are something in between. By and large the girls tend to be more successful in their writing.

love the idea of the biscuits sarahfreck

does he like writing on the computer? you can show him how easy but also necessary it is to leave a space in between words by writing a little together on 'word', make the font bigger so he can see it all clearly. then print it, he can draw a picture, or use the text in making a little book, with photos etc as already suggested.
or... photocopy a piece of his writing and use a highlighter together to mark where there should have been a space, he sounds a bright boy if most spellings correct so this should be a fairly easy thing to learn quickly, without too much nagging.
then he could type up 1 or 2 sentences of the corrected version to print. some children like 'marking' their own work.
perhaps ask the teacher if she would look at his work more regularly for a while as you really want him to leave spaces, and if she mentions it at the beginning of a writing task, it might be more help.

Just thinking about all these great suggestions made me realise that when he writes stuff (a line or two) at home he does leave spaces. He does a lot of drawing and writes little bits next to his pictures. I'll talk to him and try to work out what's going on in his little head. Maybe he wants to make it look as dense as a page of print in a book....I'll tell his teacher that we're working on spaces at home. Thanks everyone!

I wonder if he may be so focused on "writing a whole page" that he isn't thinking about other things (like spaces)?

Having seen her workbook and some of the work exhibited in DD1's class they tend to do a drawing and half a page of writing on fairly wide ruled pages.

Every week after covering and writing spellings she has to write two or three sentences using the spellings.