What should a child's writing be like now in reception ?

[beingmorehappy]

My DS has been learning to write since he just turned 3 ( as he was at a private school nursery and they start teaching them the lowercase & Capital letters there from the sept one year before they start reception. ) He really hated the writing. I continued it as something to do 10 mins practice on each day in the original lockdown. And he loved learning the sounds and finding items with that sound, but still wasn't keen on actual writing, but he did it ok.)

My DS is an August born and he started school in Sept 2020, so he's now in yr R at a state primary school. His writing is terrible, different sizes, wonky, can't keep on the line. He's lost a lot of the correct formation too, they didn't seem to write much to start with in reception and now it seems they are meant to be doing sentences with capitals and full stops? He is in KW class at school, but it's TAs in so they are getting live teaching via a screen in the classroom. We have a written plan sheet saying what they are doing each day, so I know they are writing a sentence about x . He is not in his usual classroom or with his class TAs or his usual teacher on the screen, which doesn't help. They have sent stuff home he's written and it's terrible, misspelt phonics, like learning oi and him writing it wrong as io over and over in every word and no one spotting/ correcting it.

On a positives note my DS has really got into colouring and drawing . I hope this will help his pen control and he wasn't interested previously and I would end up doing it.

I just feel really disappointed as I can't home school him this due to work, and we try to practice the writing, but he looks so upset if I suggest it. I asked him to write what he wanted to watch on TV tonight after school and he wrote two words happily, but anymore than this and he starts getting upset. It's a hard balance as he's only 4.5 and he's tired after school.

What should a child in YR R writing be like ?

It varies HUGELY.
Your ds is not 'behind' if he is writing a sentence. Even if we hadn't had such a disrupted year, he is only 4yrs 5 months old.

I think hes doing ok, its quite hard to tell in reception, most of my 5yo R class have this same sort of writing, keep up the practice and don't feel guilty that you're working, you're doing what you can xx

There is no "should ". Each child progresses differently. He's very young so focus on engaging him and making it fun and interesting. The rest will follow.

Expectation is a sentence with correct formation etc by the end of the year so he sounds fine.

I don't think it's a case of state vs private. I know many kids at both and they vary hugely dependent on child.

They assess them before may though not july.
You can probably look at examples of met expectations on the gov website
My CSA start so 5.5yo now in yr r isnt doing any better. In sept it looked like she would be good with writing but they didnt practise a lot at school.
Ive got an older dc so having to do all the homeschooling with them and basically youngest isnt learning anything apart from the 2 live lessons.
Tbh i think the difference is you are used to private but state relies on parents doing all the daily practise especially reading. However dc1 did get a lot better with writing in yr 1 (summer born).

Im finding the pace of new digraph learning this term too fast (even though dc is the eldest) so im not surprised your dc is getting oi wrong. Mine cant always get ch vs sh.
Dc writing is about 1-2 inches high!

I think writing needs small groups and of course a teacher/ta cant watch 30 kids individually. I also wouldnt be surprised if they arent now sitting as close to the kids now with covid

@HSHorror

I think writing needs small groups and of course a teacher/ta cant watch 30 kids individually. I also wouldnt be surprised if they arent now sitting as close to the kids now with covid

In most EYFS classes the children would have small group teaching for handwriting etc for exactly the reasons you mention. Usually 4-6 in a group so that the teacher/TA can support them where required. It would be unusual to have 30 children writing at the same time unless very briefly using whiteboards during the whole class input session.

Thanks everyone it's really helpful. This afternoon after heated debates about which way around a g goes, I
got him to copy two sentences I wrote out and he did it well. Normally I ask him to write with me spelling it out like me saying cat, c and he writes it then a then t. Obviously when he copies it is easier, but would they copy in class or write stuff themselves from their heads?!

DS2 is in reception. He's a June birthday. His writing is ok- it's improved a lot since Christmas. It's not always consistent, mostly correctly formed but not always. On the line-ish although not always brilliantly positioned. But he's got me/DH sat next to him when he's writing, picking him up on letter formation and reminding him about finger spaces. I'm sure it would be much less consistent if he didn't basically have 1-1 adult support at the moment (there have to be some advantages of the home schooling I suppose- hopefully he's forming good habits!)

They're doing two pieces of writing each day at the moment. The first is a sound of the day, where they write out a sound several times, then 2-3 words which contain the sound. This is copied from the board. The second piece of writing is a sentence that the teacher gives them, and goes through each word sounding it out, but when they start writing it isn't on the board so they need to spell it themselves, though they have already sounded everything out as a class. They can do an extra sentence or two as a challenge, depending how they get on with sentence number 1.

You might be interested in this free course for parents https://nha-handwriting.org.uk/event/nha-twilight-webinar-supporting-handwriting-and-typing-skills-at-home/

Assume not left handed? DS1 is (as am I) and school warned us his writing would be worse because he’s covering what he’s writing so can’t so easily keep it on the line. I wouldn’t fret, particularly this year.

Even good writing will be uneven and misshapen. Writing is harder than reading. They need to know the letter and have the dexterity to control their movements.
End of year they will have covered capital letters to start a sentence ending with a full stop. Words will be decipherable but based on the sound. The average child will be writing sentences and sounding out the words. But this depends on their starting level and where they were when they entered Reception class. The higher the starting level the higher the exit level should be in comparison. But this year it depends on how much they have learnt depending on the circumstances.

DD is in Reception. She is doing fairly well as far as I can tell. She is making progress on her letters but they are definitely not perfectly formed yet. They encourage her to sound out words herself. In her home learning the teacher queried how she knew to spell elephant (she had help). We do encourage her to remember the digraph they are working on but don't correct her. She likes letter join, a website where they trace the words. She will practice formation more willingly than on paper and won't shout at me that I am wrong and she knows better!

At this age, I think the ability really varies. If he likes drawing and colouring, instead of asking him to write something, maybe ask him to do the diary for you so you can see what he was up to at school?
I did this with my dc at that age. and it was mostly drawing and few words/sentences, but it's way more fun for him to practice fine motor skills than forced to copy some sentences.

Reception teacher here. The majority of my class currently only identify initial sounds in words - we're a long way from writing sentences. At this stage, it's really important that he writes down the sounds he can hear in words - encourage him to use his phonics, but don't insist on correct spelling. To support letter formation, give him an alphabet strip so that he can find the letter he needs - it will develop his independence more than copying your letters.

To support his handwriting, look for fine motor activities such as Lego, play dough and threading. The muscles in his fingers need to develop before his handwriting will be neat. Don't give him lines of letters to trace over.

It sounds like he's doing fine.