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?

If you post a piece of independent (no help at all) story or diary writing then I can assess where he is

I’m not convinced they’ve even done joined up yet in his class @worriedniece most parents say mo sign of it in their books at all. Maybe some of the best pupils have moved on to joined up but it doesn’t seem like that’s the norm. To be fair the writing of the class as a whole was recognised as behind earlier in the year and they said it was a priority to concentrate on the basics including the coordination Building blocks - lots of cutting etc. So I’m glad they haven’t rushed him onto joined up when he wasn’t ready

Thanks so much - I will try to find something. Would it be ok if I pm it?

That last one was also to you @worriedniece

I only ever use mumsnet on my phone so not sure if I can get PM, but if I can then yes, of course you can!

Thank you @worriedniece yes you can - I also only ever use the phone too. When I send it you will be able to read it on the little human icon at the very top right.

It's better than my DS' who is the same school year.

It's also better than my 11 year olds, although he really struggles with handwriting.

That’s reassuring @scrivette . I feel for your 11 year old as I also struggled at that age.

@worriedniece I’ve just sent you a pm - tried to send you a picture of a piece of independent writing and I’ve written out what I think it says. Any advice very welcome.

I’ve looked through the writing in his English book and I can see there isn’t consistent use of fullstops or capitals yet. Also few sentences have connectors other than ‘and’. Will try to encourage this as next steps when there’s incidental writing - postcards etc.

I’m guessing this might be the writing issues other than just handwriting which the teacher might have been meaning when she said most of them were behind where he would have been.

It’s odd because he’s a good reader and has a reasonably good vocabulary.

DS1 never wrote as clearly as this until he was in year 5! We worried about it too and teachers can try different interventions if they are concerned. But seriously this doesn't look bad at all. DS2 has just finished year 2 and writes similar to this. I think it's quite a good standard tbh!

Thanks @33goingon64 thats really reassuring. I hope your oldest is writing ok now

KS2 teacher here - looks good to me. Practice is always welcome and fluent handwriting does help writing in general as it’s one less thing to ‘think’ about for the writer but don’t stress about it!

My DD (16) has handwriting which is much less neat and even than your sample. She cannot join letters at all and doesn't use full-stops or capitals correctly. Her spelling is extremely poor.

Her teachers were not concerned at all, did no Interventions and said handwriting was now irrelevant due to phones and keyboards.

Personally I find that quite sad and worry she'll be judged in the workplace, but it's the modern state school approach and no action is taken.

It looks similar to DS's writing - he also just finished Y2, and I am told he is about where he should be.

@TheYearOfSmallThings what a lovely piece of writing. Loving the spelling and especially that several species have “copped it”. Just great!

@Justalittlebitfurther I’m officially no longer panicking- thanks so much

@Undertheoldlindentree that also seems sad to me but to be honest I almost never see writing used in my workplace. I’m struggling to think of the last time!

Yes I’m not a fan of everyone trotting out that it doesn’t matter if handwriting is messy. I would like DS to be able to write legibly.

This is DS at the end of year 6! He can write a bit neater if he tries though.

It’s far better than my child who has just finished year two. I’m not worried, but he now has various diagnoses and very likely he will move to typing instead of writing during KS2. I was a teacher pre kids and we don’t want to spend a long time practising writing when it’s physically really hard and painful. I’ve seen children really lose the joy of writing when schools insist on this. Thankfully the school agree that spending loads of time worrying about handwriting is not a priority. Personally I rarely handwrite anything in my job or home life.

Hi @Writingworries - I'm an experienced Year 2 teacher and happy to take a look at an independent piece of his writing and give some tips? In terms of size and formation, it looks quite neat. At my school, about two thirds are using cursive script by the end of Y2, but there are definitely still students whose writing is far less legible than your son's.

@Introvertedbuthappy thank you! I will and you a pm!

@Introvertedbuthappy I have pm-ed you. Any ideas greatly appreciated

@Writingworries thanks, I've messaged you back! I really don't think you need to be worried after seeing his independent extended piece, although I have suggested some short term targets you may want to work on at home.