can any teachers help? correct formation of letter 't'

[tankerdale]

Sorry this is a bit dull & pendantic!
I had a thread about whether to query with the teacher the handwriting homework. The example words that the children were meant to copy weren't cursive and t's were written same height as bs, h's etc.

Teacher has come back saying that as dd has been finding cursive tricky, she gave her some separate ones to do - fair enough (though dd just got the hang of always trying cursive....)

She also said that t's have the same ascender height as h's. Is this right? Even when she wrote this in the communication book her t's are shorter, and they are in this font on mumsnet.

Is she right? Are t's as tall as b's, h's etc & is this what children should learn when doing handwriting?
Really don't want dd to practice it wrong!

I teach them the same height as every other letter. Wouldn't want to complicate things! :) That's what's in the Nelson handwriting scheme anyway.

Ok thank you, that's really helpful. It just looks odd and wrong to me!

I was taught in school that 't' was the same height as b, d etc. I'm now a teacher and our handwriting scheme teaches 't' as slightly shorter. This Is what I teach, I've found it very difficult to change my handwriting though, so all children's books, displays I make etc have the 'large' t.

Ok thank you, that's really helpful. It just looks odd and wrong to me!

Oops...

It is slightly shorter in our scheme. I've always taught it that way, with the crossbar the height of the other short letters.

I'm not a primary school teacher, but 't' is the same height as 'i' and 'j' - a half-line away from 'b', 'h' etc if you're using guide lines. It looks awful the same height as 'h' - I wish primary teachers wouldn't teach this!

It depends on the handwriting scheme the school uses. I've always taught the letter t as being slightly shorter than the other tall letters but schemes differ.

Could I check it with the head teacher? Or would the class teacher forever hate me if I did. She's new this term.

Maybe I should just ask what scheme they use. Dd is year 1

Traditionally in English the letter t is shorter. "T is not as TALL as its friends". Some schools teach this. If you screenshot this page and then zoom in to make the font larger, you will see this is true - the tees are shorter. But for ease, some schools now just teach that t is to be handwritten the same height as b,d, h, k and l. The important thing is just to be consistent within the same school.

I never new t was shorter than b or h !
I've always written in same height...

Gosh I think I must be feeling a bit hormonal - I'm feeling quite sad about the inevitable demise of the shorter 't' 'for ease' - it just doesn't look right all tall and I don't want dd to write it that way!

Wow I never knew this. I thought it was the same (I was a teacher but not primary.)

I've taught my girls same height with same lead in lines.

It depends entirely on the handwriting scheme used by the individual school. TBH I would not be pleased if a parent went to see my headteacher about this (from my perspective as a new teacher). I would feel like the parents thought I was unapproachable.

Ask for a sheet of handwriting examples to practise at home. That way you will have what you need to support your child at home and you will be using the scheme that the school has chosen.

Tbh, I am foreign, but I have a degree in Eng LIt and Linguistics! I was taught by British teacher who lived in my country for 20 years at that time, and was praised for my hand writing!!!!!!

The t should only go 3/4 of the way up

for my spellings!

I teach yr 1 and teach a lower case t as not as tall as an h or b but taller than a c or s for example. The line of the t being the same height as the c or s.
You should check with your school though as they may be doing something different.

Oops. Checked with child,apparently when they changed from printing to joined up they chaned to 3/4 length ts.

Learn something new everyday.

No "t" is slightly shorter than b, h, k, l,d

Had a look at ds's stuff and the reference sheet is shorter but the one for handwriting the same size.

Not something I'd ever given thought to before because t's shouldn't be the same height!

Not that it's an actual issue. You wouldn't think some kids went through the same school given the way their handwriting changes over time!

I never knew that 't' was ever shorter than any of the other tall letters...huh...I was taught all same height as well. Are there any other lower case letters like this? What about 'f' and 'l'?

We had that same print out and I never knew!!

I've never heard of a short t.