Yr 2 handwriting

[SusiePevensie]

Trying to work out what to make of this for writing at this stage of year 2.

I'd be happy enough with that level of handwriting coming into my Y3 class. They could sort out sitting letters like y below the line quite easily though.

I'm a Y2 parent and I also volunteer in my daughter's class. I would say that looks above average compared to what I see.

Thanks both! Kid is very insecure about his writing and convinced that he's rubbish.

Neater than my Y2 boy. Judging by the birthday cards he received from his classmates recently there’s a real range - some of the girls have beautiful handwriting that’s nicer than mine, some difficult to read. I don’t know why so many schools insist on teaching cursive - mine isn’t doing cursive and it would be far worse if he was attempting it.

@Airdustmoon - agree re: cursive!

Looks normal to me OP

My year 2 DD is at expected standard and not yet writing in cursive so I'd say it's above average.

Thank you all - it's reassuring.

Hi OP, it looks normal for year 2. By the time he goes to year 3, it will have improved massively. My son is also in year 2 and this is his handwriting.

They teach cursive because of the National curriculum! To be judged at "greater depth" at the end of year 2 they have to show evidence of some joins. The NC could really do with an overhaul!

I've seen far worse handwriting, but he could work on clear ascenders and descenders and making sure his joins and formation are correct.

I work in Y3, and would be quite happy with them coming up like this in September. We had children who were less neat than this at the start of the year who have beautiful handwriting now. I'd work on the formation and joining of 'd' - it looks like he's starting the letter at the top rather than around the bottom (the body of the dinosaur in RWI!) and then doing the ascender. Apart from that, it's mostly just size and positioning.

Just reiterating the pp that said the reason school's do it is because it's in the national curriculum. Teachers don't choose what to teach!

Yes - sorry - didn't mean to blame teachers.

Thank you for reassurance and constructive stuff to work on.

@highlanbott That is lovely handwriting.

Both those examples looks great. My yr 2 child is currently working at year 1 level and in an extra intervention group.

I wish they didn't need to work on cursive lettering. My child can write fairly neatly now but not cursive.

I honestly have no idea what is expected in schools, my home educated Year 2 child has very neat and legible cursive, which we have been doing from the start, which is relevant if you began with print. But in terms of improvement / next steps which is all that matters, I would concentrate on letter formation and joins, it looks like some letters aren't formed properly and parts of some letters are sort of half forgotten in the join. There are some cursive handwriting books on amazon which may help.
Cursive is so much nicer than print, in my opinion and studies have shown there are benefits, it's great some schools are teaching it still. I don't know why it's always slammed down in favour of print.