pen licence

[glam71]

Do all schools do pen licences? When are they normally issued? My dd is in year 4 and still waiting. Mostvof the class have them

I also don't see how it helped my ds who didn't get his pen license get ready for using one at secondary , madness, I should have said something at the time.

My son's school has this and he is in year 5. I had never heard of it before and thought it was a "thing" unique to his school. I think it's a bit silly really.

wow, I'm so glad they don't do this in Scotland

they all have pencils all the way through primary

My DD got her pen license at the end of Y4. Her class seemed to get their licenses throughout Y4..

She got her Bunsen burner license at the beginning of Y5, which she was far more excited about.

I'm so glad euphemia confirmed about Scotland! I actually still used pencils well into secondary because I had terrible handwriting. And it was much better if I used pencil. I have the whole mind goes faster than the hand thing, even now, but if I concentrate hard my writing is actually quite nice. I get compliments.

I still like using pencil

DD in yr4 hasn't got one. Her teachers say she can't have one until she joins her writing, and she refuses to join her writing because she thinks it looks tidier not joined.

They do in ds3school but he skipped it and uses computer as cant write . But I not be happy if they excluded DC that actually have a physical issue with writing

We have them here, never really thought about it much. But I agree it's a silly idea.

Surely some children write BETTER with a pen so why withheld one until their writing improves??

Agree District, why not just put a big chart on the wall showing who's good and who's crap at things? Totally don't get pen licences. If children have to learn to write in pen, then they should be taught properly to write in pen. If neat handwriting and good presentation matters, then teach them that. Why invent a system that makes children feel bad about their learning?

Periwinkle Yes, the dyslexics are excluded from using pen until they are the last ones standing on pencil. I have dyslexic children.

Well thats just fine if you are diagnosed as dyslexic. I know plenty of people who weren't diagnosed for whatever reason until they were adults. The main problem for them was although they were dyslexic they also were very intelligent and found coping strategies to deal with problems. They have behavioural issues throughout school because they didn't tick the correct boxes. Instead they were labelled as lazy or trouble makers.

This idea is supposed to be a motivator. And yeah it might help some, but it straight away set children competing with each other and marks them as different. Where children are struggling they will get labelled rather than helped. And it doesn't necessarily even help the 'better' kids as instead it marks them out as different and alienates them from other kids.

A child's perform at that age is about what they are capable are of and encouraging them. Its about recognising the issues and helping them with their self confidence. Anything that put pressure on them in this way at this age, I really fail to understand how it helps. Yes that does come when they are young and competition has a place in education, but this? If you want to introduce competition from this age its far better to introduce it in games - something that is not essential to their entire education and life.

Its just setting them from age 4 or 5 to know they are bottom of the class. They simply don't need to know they are 'under performing' in essential skills in comparison to their peers. Parents need to know this, but not the children themselves.

The whole thing is totally ridiculous, DCs write in primary schools prescribed cursive style for two years at most then they revert to whatever feels comfortable to them in Y7.

My primary hated loops, I put loops on everything

I think I will have to find out now for my own curiosity if our school does this. My DD1 has irlen syndrome and is showing signs of dyslexia (only in reception) but is an exceptional reader (bizarre but apparently she is using her own coping mechanisms). She can spell phonetically very well as we have worked quite hard with her on this but her handwriting is, on the whole, pretty bad compared to the other children. I would hate to think of her being left using pencil whilst others moved on to pen. She will never be diagnosed with dyslexia, we can tell that already even though she has many traits indicating she has it mildly, but the school are aware and they have flagged her up due to the irlen syndrome.

I remember us learning to use fountain pens, it was year 3 and everyone started with them at the same time, we learned how to write properly with them (I think we did started joined up writing at the start of the year and then moved to fountain pens at Easter). Mind in those days we did a lot of handwriting practice, so far I haven't seen any evidence of handwriting books or anything in school (do they still do it from year 1 or something?), can't even see much evidence of them being allowed to write on lines nowadays but that is another story....

Does anyone have any ideas for a thick pen?

DS1 is supposed to use a Parker Jotter, but it's too thin at the tip to hold (I find it uncomfortable as well).

He can't doa tripod grip as his thumb is hyper flexible.

and pink gel pen sounds pretty cool to me :o)

DD is in year 4 and has to use a fountain pen. They used pencil at the beginning of the year and phased into fountain pen when they were ready. DD used hers a week into Yr4 some other by November. She is not allowed to use biro.. Pencil for maths.

ds1 - dyslexic, never got one but had to start writing in pen from the 1st day of secondary.

Ds2 in y5 & will likely never get one but will also have to write in pen in secondary. He has major problems with wrtiting but has never received help from the school. He said in his y5 class only 1 person has a pen licence. Starting to realise just how bad this school is at teaching writing.

My DC's primary school had pen licences and it seemed to get tougher to get them as my DC's went through. By the time my DS3 left year 6, more than half the child still didn@t have a pen licence!

Don't like them, don't use them. I don't understand them at all - why is it 'better' to write in pen? I prefer pencil as children can rub rather than cross out and have previously just used pencils right up to Year 6. However, as they will write in pen at secondary and the new SATs are scanned and copied, it makes sense to at least expect Year 6 to write in pen. Any black pen is fine although I don't personally like gel pens.

I train them to cross out with 1 single line during the Autumn term and then everyone gets one after Christmas. Not all adults have neat handwriting so it is ridiculous to expect children to. Neat is nice and should be encouraged but legible is fine.

We live abroad.

DD's class all started to use fountain pen after Christmas in year 2, all a the same time. No other pen is or has been allowed, there is no reception year so they learn to write in pencil in year 1 and switch to fountain pen in year 2.

Now (still year 2) all writing has to be in fountain pen except for maths, which is in pencil. Untidy work has to be copied out again - and again - and again - and again. Luckily she can write neatly when she chooses but when told to do a "neat" draft she actually gets messier and makes spelling mistakes she doesn't make when writing creatively/ when not copying out!

The school system where we live does not involve any concept of differentiation or individualised learning, so it is the opposite end of the spectrum from those worrying in the UK that some children will not meet the standard to be given a "pen licence" and be left behind. Like almost everything, the ideal would probably be somewhere between the 2 extremes!

All children should be writing exclusively with quills by Y3.

I will suggest it to Michael Gove.

My DS2 uses an erasable pen in secondary. He has SN and still doesn't join his writing but he's a lot happier using a pen like everyone else.

Dd is the only one left in her class without one, she comes out of school every friday in floods of tears. she has adhd and dyspraxia and this is not taken into consideration as far as I can see.

I have asked the teacher why they feel they have to make into such a big deal because the children are becoming obsesssed with having one, well they were, but now they all have one! DD feels utterly shit about it, and I really dont know what to do. She is in yr 3.

Well this all brings back childhood memories First it was our spelling tin, little bits of card each with a word on kept in a baccy tin. The words got replaced as we learnt them, one by one. Mum had to go and have a word as my tin ended up full of What, why, where, when, etc. She had to point out that I clearly had a problem and this really wasn't helping. Then came the pen, I didn't expect to get one early, or middling, just when the last of us all got one. I only realised I wasn't thick in my late teens, I just struggled with a couple of things that in the grand scheme of things really don't matter. Along with tucking my shirt in.