Year 1 child, just won't write

[Rudolphian]

I'm not sure what I'm expecting but just want some advice.
My daughter is going to start year 2 in September and is April born.
All throughout reception I was told she was doing OK.
I was worried about her writing but I was told some children just develop later. So I did t really push the issue or do any extra work at home. I didnt want to pressure her too much.
In her school they teach the children to write but giving each letters tails. This is to make it easier to transition to handwriting.
I hadn't been told there were any concerns or issues. She is my first child so I wasnt sure if it she was learning at the appropriate rate.
Anyway in her year 1 parents evening just before Christmas. The teacher said she was struggling with her writing. Her writing is really not legible and she wouldn't write anything unless someone sat with her and went through each word one by one.
Due to this they moved her down a group in her English. Since then I did some work on her handwriting everyday. I had to reach her how to do each letter right from the beginning. All her letters were just tails with random squiggles in the middle.
Her writing is much better. She still needs reminding about making the tall letters tall and the short letters short.
When give a writing sheet with guidelines her writing can be very neat, but sometimes she still gets careless.
Throughout the lockdown I've been trying to ensure we work on her writing and practicing writing sentences which they told me she was particularly weak at.
But she just will not write.
As soon as I give her an English task she just sits there saying ' I can't do it.'
And sometimes she will just start crying.
If I talk her through a task, she can tell me the answer and had an extensive vocabulary. It's just when it comes to writing anything down she will just sit there and say she can't do it and become very upset.
When doing maths tasks she just finishes them in a few minutes without issues.
When writing she frequently gets her 'd' and 'b' the wrong way round and some numbers also.
I'm not sure if I should continue with the English exercises. The exercises are really simple and in reality shouldn't really take her longer than 5 minutes.

Will this improve over the next year or is there something likely underlying that could be causing this. I avoid criticising her and just try to give her lots of praise but sometimes it can be difficult when she hasn't wrote a single word after 15 minutes.
I think previously she didnt like writing because she'd been told her writing was untidy, so not sure if this has affected her but her writing is much better now.
Is this likely just something that will improve over the next year?

Hello Op
We had similar issues with my 9yr old at that age too. Also problems with phonics too.
Recently diagnosed By an educational psychologist dyslexia and dyspraxia (Sensory processing challenges too).
It has led to huge anxiety on her part.
As they get older it becomes easier to use technology to type or dictate.
It’s very hard when it’s your eldest as you have no previous experience.
I would keep building her confidence up and keep under review -good luck xx

Some kids get really anxious about writing. In particular about getting words "wrong" when they are already struggling.

Wanting to go to the loo is evasion tactics and an indication of stress.

Can I suggest you think about getting a chalk board with white and coloured chalks? It worked really well in my situation because everything was temporary, erasable, no pressure. Great for practicing. Letters, words, pictures, then wipe it off any time at any stage.

DS (6) likes chalk or whiteboard, I think for that reason. We have a double sided easel thing from IKEA and a selection of these:
www.thedyslexiashop.co.uk/a4-whiteboard-set-pen-erasing-felt-bag-literacy.html
www.thedyslexiashop.co.uk/a4-whiteboard-pen-erasing-felt-bag-letter-formation.html
www.thedyslexiashop.co.uk/a4-whiteboard-pen-erasing-felt-bag-cursive-letter-formation.html
www.thedyslexiashop.co.uk/a3-whiteboard-pen-erasing-felt-bag-plain.html

Thanks for your advice.
I think we'll write some lists for a reason e.g. shopping lists. She seems happier writing a list than a sentence.
And we are also going to start writing to a fairy. She seemed intrigued and excited about this.
She did ask what if she spelled the word wrong but I told her it didnt matter because the fairies are magic and can understand what she wanted to write.
Her first letter contained.
Hello. My name is...
I forgot to reply. But need to sneak in my reply.
I've also bought a couple of activities I'm waiting for delivery to work on her fine motor skills.
Will see how she gets on when she restarts school.

if you want to strengthen her fingers with dough, instead of 'making' things have a look at 'dough disco' on you tube. We use it for our reception/nursery groups , its just squishing , poking rolling etc to music

Something I remember having at that age was a 'sentence builder'. Words on bits of card I think in a folder, that you arranged to make your sentence. Then copied into your book. If you wanted a word you didn't already have, you asked the teacher and she wrote it on a bit of card to add to your collection.

Maybe something like this could be an effective way for her to practice the composition side of writing tasks and help bridge the gap to think of a word and then write it down.