Handwriting

[Laauren]

I am interested in hearing about your school's handwriting policy. My current school (primary) ask for all letters to be joined. A school I have previously worked in were very big on not joining after the letter 'r'.
The national curriculum says:
use the diagonal and horizontal strokes that are needed to join letters and understand which letters, when adjacent to one another, are best left unjoined.

So which letters are actually 'best left unjoined'?
Is there a correct answer?

I'm trying to imagine a world where it actually matters how someone writes in cursive aside from it being legible.

Completely agree!! But unfortunately it's a big focus in my school at the minute and I'm trying to unpick the NC wording.

I've never heard of not joining r. In one school I worked in, that statement was taken to mean not joining over the apostrophe in words like can't (so not joining the n to the t) and also not looping up from letters like g and j (this did actually produce a nice looking style). I'd like to think whoever wrote it though just meant for pupils to use a consistent, fluent style which doesn't necessarily mean joining each letter. Never joining the letter r just sounds like something someone in a school has made up and then is getting everyone to follow!