Writing sample - how old is this child?

[MrsIssissippi]

I’d be really grateful if you could say how old you think the child who wrote this is?

The task was the children were shown a photo on the whiteboard and told to write a description of what they could see.

I think the child may need some additional support, but I’d be grateful for feedback from other teachers/parents.

Thank you

Tee hee
It was clearly a boy
clearly needed lined paper
could be any age up to 10 from my experience

shite handwriting is not an indicator of brains though
just ask your doctor

Lovely ideas and descriptions by the way. Mine is a similar age and has neat handwriting (if on lined paper) but has nothing to say - it drives me crazy! I'd maybe get "There is a house." out of him with a similiar exercise.

The writing is joined up and readable. The language is good too. I'd say
about 8 or 9. Needs to work on fine motor skills to get the neatness but everything else is there.

I was going to say year 3.
Ours are in Welsh school and are taught cursive writing from nursery age so the joined up writing isn't indicative of much other than the school's writing policy.
The spelling is quite phonetic which is just as ours spell when they start learning English in year 3.
Layout and presentation can easily be helped with lined paper and a margin and also by using an ink pen.

"It was clearly a boy" sexist twaddle!

Just on this one piece he doesn't look too far behind for Y3, but there's certainly things to work on. I'd want to see a more varied sentence structure and the use of conjunctions- and, when, but, because etc. Also spellings - is he writing 'our' for 'are'? I can't quite make it out.

You might want to look at the KS1 Writing exemplification to get an idea of what is expected in Y2.

I would also recommend Apples and pears as an easy way to support handwriting and spelling at home.

Boy.
Definitely. Put money on it.
Year 3, possibly 2.
The vocabulary is advanced.
All handwriting at this age is shit. It's a given.

flash
I was merely speaking from rather a lot of experience
boy's writing is generally messier than girls
and their self lining is worse
but the content is fine so lined paper should be offered by all sane teachers

I think the problem is with the handwriting rather than the content. I think the child may be 8-9.

Year 2/3

8-10? (Based on my experience as a German teacher, so take this with a grain of salt.)

But I’d be able to make a better guess if this child had lined paper, tbh.
Paper with coloured support lines might be helpful as well (usually 3-tiered).
This kind of writing style is ime very difficult for many children, especially if they’re even slightly behind with their graphomotoric skills, tbh...

Drawing and other exercises (not necessarily focused on writing but on the motor if skills) can do wonders to increase the ‘neatness’ / legibility.

This may not be news to you, OP, but I used to work with a psychomotility expert and teachers were sometimes really positively surprised by the work she did and how seemilingly random exercises could have a big impact.
Even on grammar and spelling, because children could properly concentrate on the content and simply writing neatly wasn’t this much of an effort...

As I said, I’m not trying to be presumptuous / saying that you don’t already know these things.

It looks similar to my DD's writing in year 3 - although she couldn't join up her writing at all at that age, and she still couldn't form some of her letters properly. It was untidy and disorganised, although the content was generally good.

She had handwriting interventions in year 3 and 4 and it's a lot better now (she's in year 6). She was also diagnosed with dyspraxia 2 years ago.

It looks similar to my DD's writing in year 3 - although she couldn't join up her writing at all at that age, and she still couldn't form some of her letters properly. It was untidy and disorganised, although the content was generally good.

She had handwriting interventions in year 3 and 4 and it's a lot better now (she's in year 6). She was also diagnosed with dyspraxia 2 years ago.

I think it is our/Are confusion MrsK.

What’s the word before stream?

Oblomov

My guess was boy as well. But my handwriting looked very similar when I was that age.

Interestingly enough the teachers were much harsher in my case than my male cousin’s (we went to the same school).

But that’s unfortunately not unusual, I guess...

Freddie. I agree. And this is a mahoosive generalisation, but most boys at this age, compared to girls, are not that neat,or bothered.

I don't like the implication that poor writing is commensurate with low ability. DS1 is dyspraxic and his writing is worse than this.

Same here, my DS is 12 and very able academically. His writing isn't much different to this. If he is allowed to type, however, he writes better than most students in Y7 would.

DS2 is 5 and I can't imagine him writing like this in a year's time tbh. And he is doing very well at school, teachers never commented that his handwriting is behind at all!

“Wtaf wat all those posters saying 6? None of mine could get much legible down at all by 6”

Have you forgotten where you are.?

I'm secondary trained, have been Head of English for a long time, and have sadly taught many older children who write at a similar standard - I am thinking of one particular class who I had to take through their GCSE a few years ago. The students were 15-16 years old! I currently take a Year 5 intervention group and the majority of students can not write to that standard.

My Y6 doesn’t write a lot better than this if he’s bored. He generally meets expectations for writing but does the minimum to get by and his handwriting isn’t great.

Brilliant, "age 5-7" and "no older than 7". Only on bloody Mumsnet.

I think this is higher KS2. DS2 is just 6 and well above expected level and he doesn't join up whereas DC1 is Y5 and average and struggles with writing but it's joined up.

I think Y4. Y2 low ability is laughable they are not joining up at that age at all