End of Yr 2 writing. How worried should I be?

[Writingworries]

My ds has just finished Year 2. I have not been sure about his writing since Reception. His school never reopened after lockdown and while they did very good lessons online I don’t think I did very well at supporting his writing.

The Year 1 and 2 teachers have both told parents in our class that after two lockdowns most of the class is behind on writing, which is completely understandable.

The picture is his current handwriting. This was done with lots of encouragement to write as well as he can, keep letter size small and keep letters on the line. The letter n originally looked like r so I encouraged him to redo those. I can see the letter formation still seems not that secure and the w seems like a miniature capital W

What can I do to help him? Or am I overacting and this is where lots of Year 2 children are after lockdown?

My post isn’t very clear - I meant there were no in class lessons after closure which was mid March 2020 in Reception for our school until Sept 2020. Then no in class lessons again from End of December 2020 until Feb half term 2021. Great online lessons but I don’t think I did a good job supporting the writing.

That looks better than my 11 year old’s writing to be honest! He was unlucky enough to be taught cursive writing from reception which has led to an illegible scrawl with poor letter formation as he wasn’t ready for cursive! I’d say it’s pretty good for year 2.

@Norestformrz any thoughts? Any advice greatly appreciated

Really @JS87 ? That helps thank you. I have poor handwriting myself as I’m not very coordinated which makes it hard to teach him.

Just realised its not very obvious from the picture how big some of these letters are. The h in howl is 8 ml high - so writing pretty large and he’s trying to keep them small!

It’s not its

And I meant 8mm not 8 m

Year 2 teacher here - I honestly wouldn't be worrying. In my class that are just moving to Y3, some are joining, some are not and there are children whose writing isn't as neat as this.

You shouldn't be worried at all. His writing is very good for year 2. If you wanted him to do more, then you could buy some handwriting practice books, but (retired teacher here), but personally I would leave it alone.

You're way overthnking it if you are measuring his letters! It looks fine to me for end y2.

Oh my goodness thank you all so much. I’m really relieved. I’m probably mostly worried because of my own experience - still having handwriting taught me in year 7 and 8 and at degree level told my handwriting was a problem for exams. My adult writing is pretty much illegible unless I make massive effort

My fear was that it’s my fault because I couldn’t support well with writing during the term and a half he missed of in class school

It looks fine to me. My 8 year old writes like that and he is just going into year 4.

I asked his teacher mid way through Yr 2 whether there was anything more I should be doing at home. Her reply was they were all behind where they would have been on entry to Yr 2 in previous years, but that lots and lots of extra small group work has been done including on things like cutting and drawing on lines, plus letter formation. This all sounded good to me.

I haven’t ever done handwriting sheets as my instinct was that would put him off. Teacher agreed mid year that I was right not to.

Someone else commented on his writing recently which made me doubt.

@elliejjtiny thanks so much. From all these replies I’m taking on board that I had no idea of what it was normal for Year 2 writing to look like.

Our school has moved away from asking for 'neat writing' to asking for 'legible writing'. Content is more important than presentation, especially as they will spend most of their lives typing.

My kids went to primary in non-Covid times and your son's writing would be considered good.

Does his school teach joined up writing with flicks and strokes ? That is the only criticism that I can imagine.

Also did the school mean handwriting or writing a story sort of thing ? if handwriting then I think your son is doing well with letters of equal size and on the line.

Good point @PeekAtYou I thought they meant handwriting but it’s possible we might have been talking at cross purposes

@BlueChampagne that sounds sensible especially for people like me who struggled with writing as a child. I remember the misery of being the only child who couldn’t make the tail of the g come under the letter

@PeekAtYou and thank you for saying it looks good. I have no proper comparison point

If it’s legible it’s fine in my opinion.
I have always written non-cursive (wasn’t a thing in the early 70s) and used to be complemented on my handwriting before we all started typing everything.

DS (mid 20s) also resisted cursive, but he was ambidextrous so we were just glad when he finally settled on one hand 🤣. His writing is small, neat and clear.

So you are worried about the handwriting, not the content or grammar etc? Looks readable and acceptable.

My dd writing is cursive and beautiful.... but she can't spell at all!!

Thanks @worriedniece and @DotBall

Here's a typical sample of my DS's writing, he has just finished year 3. I don't understand about half of it 😂According to school is he working at age expected level for maths and reading, but behind in writing.

To get exceeding for writing end of year two you need joined up writing or at least the flicks. The content is way more important