How bad is this writing?

[Lindtnotlint]

I have posted before about my DD, currently on holiday between YR and Y1. She is the weakest writer in her class and we have been trying to help her over the summer but she isn’t exactly keen! I am trying to work out whether she is just lagging behind a good peer group (and maybe I could relax?) or whether it is more than that. Her report from school was quite negative. :-(

Picture of her writing attached - this is unsupported and of her own creation done on her own. It says “wons upon a tim ther was a ber kald haw and hse was helfel. The eend.” (Translated: “once upon a time there was a bear called Haw and she was helpful. The end.”). I have no idea why the bear is called Haw

It’s obviously not amazing but am interested in how people who have a bit more experience would think about that level of writing. Please give it to me straight either way!

She is 5 and 2 months.

(And I know I should probably relax anyway regardless! but it is quite hard because the gap between her and her peers at school is so clear).

She's still very young and I was able to read most of it without having to look at your 'translation'!
I wouldn't worry too much OP.
Maybe try to get her some writing books like the ones where you can trace the letters? Encourage her to keep writing and writing and writing and the practice will do her good and hopefully she'll be able to catch up at school!

I used to teach Reception/year one and would not be concerned with writing at this level from a child about to go into year one.
She is writing phonetically, with finger spaces which are mostly accurate. She is thinking of her own ideas too which is always a bonus.
I wouldn't panic too much and enjoy your summer with her.

If she is agin writing, perhaps she might be persuaded to make some patterns - which will help her fine motor control, but you don’t have to tell her that! Something like this:
www.nha-handwriting.org.uk/NHA/media/Public/What's%20New/Handwriting-Patterns-Playbook.pdf

Pretty standard, get her doing some practice with guidelines over the summer perhaps.

My youngest is 5 years and 2 months. He starts p1 in Scotland next month. He couldn't write this on his own. He can write his name and 'mum', that's it. I'm an English teacher. I'm not bothered in the slightest. Your daughter's writing looks perfectly acceptable.

Reception teacher... unaided i would not be worried about her writing at all! Must be a very able class because this doesnt even look like low ability to me!

Plus, she clearly knows the conventions of a story - which is impressive. 👍

I've taught Reception and have no concerns about that writing. I am concerned about her negative report though? Unless there are behaviour issues?

If she truly is the lowest writer in the class then the rest of the class are doing very well. I work in a deprived area but it is more typical for our lowest writer to leave Reception still practising writing their name.

It’s a “selective” (as if such a thing is meaningful at 3 years old...) prep school, so the group is a bit skewed for sure. The school are lovely and very supportive. But the “gap” is painfully obvious. No behavioural issues at all - other than still-not-great (but improving) concentration levels.

I wouldnt be worried, I could read it fine. I am surprised they have told you she is the weakest writer in the class.

When you say the gap is painfully obvious what do you mean?

This is by dd who was five in May. We write a lot, I buy her handwriting books and her teacher really pushes cursive writing

However she struggles to grasp independent writing and couldn’t start a short story independently so your dd is doing well.

Swings and round abouts and all that !

Have they actually said she is the weakest as that seems really harsh, ex year 1 teacher and that really doesn't seem all that low ability to me 😕

Just stuff like when you look at a display board the stuff she has written is like the above and the others have written much better stuff with decent spelling, all the letters correctly formed and the right size etc. They are all on higher reading bands etc. I think it is only “painful” for me!!

(Obviously we never ever mention any of that in front of her, and broadly speaking she has no idea).

I just asked her to spell ‘once’ and it was exactly the same as in your first pic OP

She’s so young and schools seem to want more and more earlier and earlier. That writing is very similar (or better) than most of my sons y2 class. I think if you force it she will hate it more and more.

The only thing I would be worried about is the teacher giving a 5 year old a negative report.

My son is 6. And left handed. We were told at parents evening that his handwriting is beautiful and better than some of the yr 2s. This was then followed with but he needs to speed up. Too much pressure is put on little ones in my view. They either want nice neat handwriting that takes a little longer to do or fast writing that is obviously not going to be as neat. Drives me mad to be honest. Far too much pressure.
Op I wouldn't be concerned at all. It's brilliant for a 5yr old.

I think age has a big part to play. I also have a summer born reception girl in a prep school. Her writing and drawing are well behind most of the others in her class, but many of them are 9-12 months older than her! Nothing to do with academics, my daughter is v able reader, but she isnt 5 until next week..... So ended reception younger than some of her peers started it. Its no wonder her fine motor skills aren't as advanced as theirs are, they are 20% older!

Recent writing example from us. Done with childminder, so I suspect not independent. No finger gaps! 5 next week.

My daughter is 7 in November and her writing is similar but worse than that. I've actually been wanting to start a thread like this. The school will be testing her for dyslexia in a year or so if it doesn't improve but I would say your daughters writing is a lot better especially at a year and a half age difference. I can't believe she was given a negative report she's still so young. When I've raised my concerns with my daughter's teachers over the past 2 years they have said she is still too young for them to be really concerned.

Aw this takes me back , I absolutely love how little ones spell phonetically. Her writing looks fine to me Op , it's so hard but try not to compare and remember , you need to be pretty clever to be a doctor and their writing is appalling!

I’ve taught nursery - year one. I would have deemed this child at age related expectation for the end of reception with no qualms whatsoever. This is the early learning goal which is what they need to hit by the end of reception -

Children use their phonic knowledge to write words in ways which match their spoken sounds. They also write some irregular common words. They write simple sentences which can be read by themselves and others. Some words are spelt correctly and others are phonetically plausible.

She has demonstrated everything she needs to and she’s also writing for pleasure which is fantastic. Keep encouraging her, maybe talk to her while she is writing to extend her ideas if you would like to but be careful not to make her feel like it’s a chore. I would be happy if that was my daughters writing x

When I mentioned about my daughter possibly having dyslexia in my previous post I didn't mean it to sound like I'm saying the same about your daughter! I mentioned it to emphasise how much worse my daughter's is so I don't think you have anything to worry about.

I'd say around average for end of reception, maybe on the "low" side in a very high achieving school, but def nothing to worry about. This country puts too much emphasis on formal written work too young anyway imo.