Feedback on handwriting please

[Humptydumptyx]

Can I have some feedback on my DS’s handwriting, please? He’s in Y1, early September birthday so the oldest in his class. I don’t know, maybe it’s because of his age the school expect him to produce better work or maybe the teacher is just being extra?
In my humble opinion there is absolutely nothing wrong with it but the issue seems to come up every time we get feedback from his teacher (parents’ eve, reports etc) as he keeps telling us more work needs to be done at home (DS not keen on the idea and I do admit that we don’t practice as much as we should)
I do realise that the work DS produces at home might be slightly better (no distractions, 1:1 attention) but I saw his school workbook and it’s of a similar standard. Should a six year old really be writing better than this? (The last word in each line is from memory so it’s not the spelling that is an issue)

Well I’m no expert but compared to my DS I think it’s amazing and hope mine will write like that one day!

looks fine to me.

It looks fine but it’s clearly a handwriting exercise so if his writing not as neat when he’s just writing in his normal book?

Haha my son is exactly the same age and his writing is completely crazy, it's nowhere near as good as your son's. But his teachers say he's doing fine, and although they recognise it's not his favourite thing he's still completely within the "as expected" range. So either they're way too lax or your son's school has unreasonable expectations.

It's quite good! Government guidelines are that joining together and having the letters in the right proportion to one another is a target for year 2. Are you at an indie?

Looks fine to me

Much better than my august born year 2.

It's a LOT better than my DS's writing (also Y1). I mean worryingly better!

Fine for Year 1. I wish all of my Year 1 chn would write like this!

It's okay, but not the neatest. I'd ask my daughter to focus a bit more on making it neater moving onwards

I think it’s really good for yr 1.

Is this a private school?

It's very neat, the letters are correctly formed and in proportion. If his handwritten is that good in extended pieces of writing, then it's good for a year 1 pupil.

But it is on handwriting paper with guidelines to show the height of small letters, ascenders and descenders. As it's a handwriting task, the dc only has to concentrate on this one skill.

I usually start English lessons with a few minutes of handwriting. Quite often children have beautiful handwriting during this. But they don't always sustain this during the main part of a lesson when they are also having to think about ideas, spelling, punctuation, good word choices etc etc.

It's better than my 15 year olds scribble

It looks like in many cases he isn't actually joining the letters in a single stroke, but stopping in between each letter, and then starting the next one (approximately) in the right place, so that it appears joined rather than being properly joined. It's one reason that I actually prefer children to learn the letter shapes first rather than the cursive style with lead-in and lead-out strokes, but I know not all schools agree. I prefer the children to then learn that the joining stroke is a movement that goes from the end of one letter to the point that the next letter needs to start. You could watch him as he's writing and see if you can get him to make the join between the letters more like a single stroke, if you want to improve it.

But it's coming on well for Year 1 and if he's forming the letters properly, I think it will be fine. He will just need to be encouraged to do that in the rest of his writing, and to develop that as a habit even when he's thinking of all the other aspects of writing, but that takes time.

Thank you for your input everyone. For those who asked, he is in a state school.
@LadyCatStark and @cariadlet yes, you’ve got a point, it’s not as neat on a plain piece of paper because his letters become much bigger on plain paper (albeit still in proportion). But I still don’t think it should worry the teacher so much.
@Thimbleberries yes, I see what you mean, he doesn’t join them in a single stroke. I will encourage that (on those rare occasions when we actually practice handwriting as we tend to focus on reading and maths more, which I think might be a part of the problem.)

My year 1, November born child can't yet write her name. Nor read or write simple words. Comparatively your son is miles and miles ahead

What's he up to at the end of each word there?

Looks pretty decent for year 1. As pp said, he isn't fully joining, but he's year 1! I do wonder (based mostly on the odd flourish at the end of each word) if the teacher knows he is capable of lovely handwriting but if what he produces is not to this standard typically.

I don’t think it’s bad at all. During lockdown, my then reception DS was given cursive handwriting tasks every day, which we did religiously, so he can write quite well, but looking at the Christmas cards he received this year (now year 1), only a couple can write in cursive and many can’t form the letters properly yet.

Loads better than my child's was years after Y1

My nearly 8 year olds is no better. It's a ridiculous thing for school to be pushing a kit anyway. My nephew who left his academic school with not only the best exam results of his year but ever in the school history and had unconditional offers for the best uni's after 5th year, has appalling handwriting. It's not something that holds you back especially in an age where everything is typed. He looks to be doing great.

Better handwriting than my 13 year old, although he is autistic! It's very good for Y1, I'd leave him be.

@Coconuttygirl that is the work of a reception dc? That's neater than MY writing!

I really wouldn’t be worried about his handwriting OP.

Your son writes neater and clearer than my year 2 daughter x hers isn't too bad in my opinion but the teachers complain constantly and it does piss me off because she's trying her best 🤷‍♀️

DS(6) has just presented me with this, OP.

If I were you I wouldn't be worrying.