Yr 2 SATS- no "greater depth" without cursive?

[oncewasawarrior]

Had DSs Yr 2 parent consultation thingy this morning. All very positive- he’s a bright chap, gets on with people, needs to be a bit less chatty- the usual for him!

However, she mentioned at the end that it was a shame he probably wouldn’t get “greater depth” for his literacy in the year 2 Sats as his handwriting wasn’t great! His content, punctuation and spelling are all excellent (greater depth standard), he’s got a reading-age of 12+ BUT because he can’t do cursive he can’t get greater depth. His writing is perfectly legible btw- just not cursive.

Is this actually A Thing? Surely as long as handwriting’s legible and neat enough then it should be all about the content? I don’t particularly care about YR2 SATS but this has annoyed me. Anyone know if this is really the case?

who are you yes, I would say that the expectations are much more realistic. They have added a standard that talks about the overall quality/content of their writing- that wasn't there last year, it was all technical aspects but nothing about overall content. They removed the utterly ridiculous need to have evidence of questions, commands, statements and (particularly) exclamation sentences. And handwriting now only needs to be joined for GD. Plus added some flexibility. I think a lot of Y2 teachers breathed a huge sigh of relief when the new framework came out! It will be interesting to see how results are affected.

MrsKCastle, that is very interesting indeed. My DD is in Y2 and has received the same message from the teacher about needing to write cursive in order to get GD. They have also been doing exclamation sentences in class. Ought I to be concerned that DD's teacher has not read the new framework? Or would all teachers be covering this stuff anyway in Y2?

They should still be covering it, it's still on the curriculum. The difference is they don't need the exclamation sentences to reach the standard. With cursive writing, they should still be doing it for GD, I will certainly be pushing it with my GD children, but as I say there is a little flexibility.

Thanks, MrsKCastle!

My concern is that an able child will not be stretched in ks2 because of his handwriting!

You really are overthinking this op. I remember reading the criteria for greater depth in KS1 when DD went through (first year in new system), I concluded that all of the exactness required was unhealthy when they are at an age where enthusiasm and expression should prevail imo.