Cursive school

[puddingandsun]

My dc (5) was taught to write in cursive. He's quite good in it.
He moved schools a week ago.
The new school don't teach cursive.
I didn't have a discussion with his teacher about his learning (which upsets me, I asked for a call to go over things but never got one).
DC comes home with little sheets with a single sound to trace in print. He has learned writing all his letters back in September. With his old school he was revising Phase 3 phonics, reading yellow/ blue band books (Essential Letters and Sounds).
His new teacher hasn't given him a reading book yet and is giving him sheets to trace letters in print (they teach Write, Read, Inc.).
My question, I guess is, do I now teach my son to write in print during half term? Wouldn't it be a shame to unlearn cursive? Anyone who has experience with this or any teachers that can advice?
He used to write every day at home. He has stopped now that he is at the new school. Think he is losing interest as he's taken way too back.
Luckily we still read even though his teacher seems to think he is not at a reading level yet and there are no school books coming home.

*Tread Title was meant to say 'Cursive writing - change of school'

You need to give the school a chance to assess him for themselves. Moving to a new school just before they break up for a holiday is tough for the child, and the teachers are unlikely to rush him. They'll give him a chance to settle a little first.

I understand. But I hoped they would've had a teacher report from previous school / chat with me.
I just don't know if he needs to relearn his writing now and if yes I could teach him during half term.
I guess I'm also fearing him losing interest and his good habits.

Request a chat with his teacher and explain all this, then they'll explain why they're giving him such tasks

@Lacedwithgrace thanks. I did ask for a call. Never got it. Didn't get a chance to speak to her at the door etc. And now it's half term. So not sure if I should use the time and just teach him to write like the rest of his new class or it will cause unnecessary confusion for him.

Ofsted have just released guidance saying that the evidence suggests that non cursive is the better method:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-research-review-series-english

I'll have a read- thanks. If it was my choice I wouldn't have taught him cursive to begin with but he has learned it now and always starts writing from the line with a lead. I saw him trying to write 'g' non cursive the other day and he was a bit lost as to where to start.

DDs school teach cursive from Reception so I was interested in the linked article. It seems to be saying that delaying cursive allows them to focus on other things e.g. spelling, comprehension. I understood that to mean learning cursive is harder, so you might want to wait until later, not that print is necessarily the better overall method. But I may have missed something?

As your son has already learnt cursive, it seems a shame to go back to print and possibly have to relearn cursive again later. That's no help to how you interact with the school though!

I feel going straight to cursive works well for stronger writers. No need to relearn later and it supports speed of writing and spelling. Stronger writers will fairly quickly improve the legibility of their writing. My DD had decent cursive by Easter of Reception. However I feel for those who find writing harder for whatever reason (stamina, less secure in letter sounds, less keen to sit and write) it can sometimes be a bit too much.

I wouldn't spend time over half term teaching him print. It's fine to wait. You don't know the full story either.

If he's learned cursive, it might still come in useful later on at this school. They might just take it a bit slower.

I really would wait until you've had a chance to speak to the teacher before doing anything.

I agree with above, don't do anything without speaking to the teacher first. It doesn't make sense to go back to learning print as the aim is to move onto cursive.

My DD has also learnt cursive from reception, they do it with the stronger writers from the outset at her school with the aim of all of reception starting by the end of the year. She was a stronger writer from pre-school so took to it easily and much prefers it to print (currently due to finish Reception).

I had read the government standards just before she started and questioned why her school made them start so early. When I spoke to the head, she justified it and I am happy I trusted her.

Read Write Inc teaches cursive later on, about y2/3 if I remember correctly. We've just started using it at our school so I've just been trained in it!
It makes sense to me, many of our reception writers were drawing the basic letter shapes then adding the lead ins and outs afterwards, making their handwriting far less legible.

Oh and with regards to reading, RWI is very different to Oxford Reading Tree etc. I don't think it's a matter of "doesn't think he is at a reading level yet" but he will have to be assessed to see what level he is working at. They are given books which only contain the sounds they have learned (unlike ORT which may seem easy but will then suddenly throw in a "igh" word or something like "everyone" and the child is understandably thrown).
Since he's only been there a week I imagine they'll get to assessing soon. Hopefully the teacher will get back to you soon too!

He's 5 - let him enjoy half term playing! His education will not suffer from stopping learning cursive at age 5.

He's changed schools - inevitably there will be some different approaches between the two settings. Have a chat with the teacher by all means but it is pretty unlikely they'll teach / set different work for your child because he started school elsewhere.

I know it must seem worrying at this point but try to remember that schooling is a marathon, not a sprint, they (almost) all get there in the end and the important thing is to instill a love of learning at this age.

Thanks for all the replies.

My dc is a quiet, not very confident child. I moved him to a smaller, more relaxed school where I actually expected him to feel a bit ahead, and that in turn would help with his confidence, him showing more of himself at school, and focus on making friends, etc.

What worries me is him thinking that he needs to write differently, not form his print letters correctly as he was taught cursive from the start, and that in turn make him think he is not doing well.

There are a couple of distinctions to be made here. All schools have to teach using decodable books only, not just Read Write Inc schools.
/igh/ is taught in Reception so all schemes will contain it in early books.

Floppy’s Phonics is one such decodable scheme and is ORT (Biff, Chip, Kipper, etc). However, the main ORT strand is non-decodable, does not match in the NC and should not be used to practise reading.

Ofsted is such an outdated nonsense. We teach cursive straight away rather than having to re teach letter formation. It makes perfect sense and is easy for children to grasp. I very much doubt that the school won’t let him carry on with cursive. It would be ridiculous of them not to.

From September 2021 (so the current YR intake) schools were 'advised' as part of the new Phonics Schemes being introduced, to stop teaching cursive in Reception and Year 1 (many have opted to 'start some children' towards the end of Year 2, but most will wait until Year 3 I suspect. (This has NOTHING to do with Ofsted and everything to do with best practise after years of research! Ofsted have not dictated this, despite what some posters are saying...I hate them as much as the next person, but they can't be blamed for every single decision in education 🤦‍♀️ This decision has been made squarely by the DfE!)

morrellshandwriting.co.uk/blog/the-axe-falls-on-the-lead-in-stroke/

This was due to the overhaul in the Phonics curriculum, which will soon become statutory (lots of schools, mine included, have already changed to one of the new validated schemes, which is why we now have to teach print rather than cursive).

Possibly your DCs new school is the same...or maybe they didn't ever teach cursive in reception. Either way, as other's have said, speak to the school. It is very difficult to re-teach handwriting once it's embedded.

If he's already writing reasonably successfully in cursive, hopefully the teacher will be happy for him to continue. It may depend on the experience and confidence of the teacher - an older, more experienced teacher who has taught both ways before may be more relaxed about having one child doing things differently.

Being able to print is quite a useful skill, though, and being able to know where the letters start and stop is helpful. Cursive should be seeing the lead ins and outs as ways of getting efficiently to the start point of the next letter, and that may different depending on which letters come before or after, so there might be some merit in getting a set of alphabet cards/posters that show the starting point of the printed letter, and just reminding him as he does his normal cursive, that he is leading in to that start point, and when finished, that he's done the letter at the correct end point, and then doing a 'getting ready' stroke at the end. Just a gradual transition in the language like that , rather than totally starting again, might make him more confident about how printing and cursive are connected - maybe also pointing out how printing looks more like his reading books. Sometimes tracing over large print writing in a suitable handwriting style font, but adding in the leading in and out strokes to change it into cursive, can help make the link that those bits aren't part of the letter, but just make it easy to join. That way he doesn't think he's wrong for doing them, but he will eventually be able to do both styles as required.

I learned English style joined writing, then moved to a new country where they did printing first, and then proper cursive (not like the joined up writing here, but quite different cursive shapes for some letters), and at first they let me keep the old style, but eventually I decided it was easier to swap, and I enjoyed handwriting lessons and being neat, so I was happy to take part in all the letter formation exercises, even if I could already do a version of joined up writing.

@BotCrossHuns that's very helpful! Thank you!

Was he taught cursive or pre cursive at his previous school? Cursive is fully joined letters and pre cursive has ‘lead in’ and ‘exit’ stroke but the individual letters in a word are not joined. I’ve attached a photo of what pre cursive handwriting is.

I’d be VERY surprised if a school had taught children in eyfs 1 cursive handwriting from the outset. I’ve never known that in 25 years of teaching!

My school, has previously taught pre cursive letter formation from the outset in reception but we have recently revised our policy as we felt the pre cursive style was a barrier to writing for some children. It can be quite tricky to master correctly. We felt conflicted as it almost means having to teach letter formation twice (again when precursive is introduced, in readiness for cursive) however on balance, we felt it better to introduce it later.

If your son were in my class, I certainly wouldn’t be asking him to change his handwriting style but I would ensure that he was forming his letters correctly.

Also, handwriting is taught separately to phonics (but handwriting will be reinforced within phonics sessions ) so don’t worry that he has been given sheets with single sounds to trace over. The focus would purely be handwriting on this occasion.

Pre cursive handwriting.

One of the advantages of pre cursive is that letters all begin in the same place…on the line!

@ChittyChittyBoomBoom Yes, pre cursive! You're absolutely right. Thank you so much for taking the time to respond.