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Do Schools Teach 'Joined Up' Handwriting These Days?

(86 Posts)
mae13 Sun 21-Jul-24 13:08:54

With almost everything tapped out on keyboards nowadays I was idly wondering if my 3 year old great niece would be drilled through joined-up handwriting lessons as I was at the age of 7?

Or is it no longer on the school syllabus?

MissAdventure Sun 21-Jul-24 13:11:59

Yes, I think so,
I know both my grandsons handwriting was joined up by about eight or so, and I doubt it was self taught.

Redhead56 Sun 21-Jul-24 13:21:34

It was called cursive writing years ago.

nanaK54 Sun 21-Jul-24 13:22:29

Our Primary teach cursive from day one

Oreo Sun 21-Jul-24 13:34:44

Day one?
Four year olds can’t usually write or spell anything.

Oreo Sun 21-Jul-24 13:35:44

It will become obsolete in time I think as future generations do less and less writing anything by hand.

nanaK54 Sun 21-Jul-24 13:39:13

Oreo

Day one?
Four year olds can’t usually write or spell anything.

Absolutely day one, I am talking about letter formation, would add that lots of four year olds will have a stab at writing their own name.

GrannyGravy13 Sun 21-Jul-24 13:48:42

Cursive writing is taught at both primary schools GC attend and in the two that the older GC attended before senior school.

Mollygo Sun 21-Jul-24 13:58:34

We teach cursive writing from Y1. We did try it from Reception, but the incredibly wide variation in fine motor skills made us decide to focus on formation first, and learning to add flicks.

It first became a focus in KS1 when you couldn’t achieve Level 3 SAT in writing if your writing didn’t show some evidence of joining up.

At SAT moderation meetings it was entertaining to see what was judged by different schools as some evidence of joining up in order to give level 3.

Grannynannywanny Sun 21-Jul-24 14:00:42

I remember a few years back when my granddaughter was 7 and I wrote a message on her birthday card. Thinking I was making it easier for her to read I didn’t use my usual cursive writing. She read the message and after a pause said “I wonder why your teacher didn’t show you how to join up your letters Gran, I can show you if you like” 😆

Ilovecheese Sun 21-Jul-24 14:01:51

My eight year old grandchild was taught joined up writing from the start. My seventeen year old grandchild was not.

Joseann Sun 21-Jul-24 14:04:03

My feeling is that cursive script should be introduced in Year 2, and that by years 4 and 5 handwriting should be fully joined up.
Do they still award a few marks purely for Handwriting in KS2 SATS?
By Year 6 some pupils start dropping the uncomfortable joins, and I would find that acceptable because I do that myself!

Joseann Sun 21-Jul-24 14:05:33

😆 Grannynannywanny.

MiniMoon Sun 21-Jul-24 14:55:42

I was having my tonsils removed when my class learned joined up handwriting. I had to try to catch up by trying to form my letters from the examples on the roller board. I found the fancy fs, ts and zeds particularly difficult.
My grandchildren learnt cursive in school in Scotland.

mabon1 Sun 21-Jul-24 15:08:42

It is "cursive" writing not "joined up"

PamelaJ1 Sun 21-Jul-24 15:18:50

We used to call it ‘joined up’. That was in the olden days before we learnt words like cursive. I’m sorry if I seem rude but I understood the question.
The answer is yes they do.

JaneJudge Sun 21-Jul-24 15:22:02

yes they do

Joseann Sun 21-Jul-24 15:22:41

It's near enough the same thing, whatever it's called.
I'm sure the National Currriculum refers to "unjoined" writing, so joined-up seems a fair description of cursive!

Sparklefizz Sun 21-Jul-24 15:35:03

Grannynannywanny

I remember a few years back when my granddaughter was 7 and I wrote a message on her birthday card. Thinking I was making it easier for her to read I didn’t use my usual cursive writing. She read the message and after a pause said “I wonder why your teacher didn’t show you how to join up your letters Gran, I can show you if you like” 😆

Love it!

mae13 Sun 21-Jul-24 16:18:18

mabon1

It is "cursive" writing not "joined up"

So maybe I should go back 63 years and point out to my teacher "Hey - it's called 'cursive' Miss, not 'joined up'! What they teach you at college?"

NotSpaghetti Sun 21-Jul-24 16:24:02

My grandson writes this way. He is 9 now but has been writing like this for a couple of years at least.

eazybee Sun 21-Jul-24 16:27:05

Cursive writing was part of the National Curriculum until at least 2011; whether it is still taught at primary level I don't know, but the number of young adults who do not know how to hold a pen correctly is horrifying.
Before cursive it was described as 'copperplate.'

NotSpaghetti Sun 21-Jul-24 16:27:07

nanaK54

Our Primary teach cursive from day one

My granddaughter (just 5) forms her letters correctly so she can join up some words already. I don't know when they formally teach it but if you have the "tails" on your letters it's not so hard, as Molly says.

ixion Sun 21-Jul-24 16:29:00

We were taught the Marion Richardson style in J3 (late 1950s).

Mollygo Sun 21-Jul-24 18:22:30

ixion I wish ! We were taught script in first year juniors (now Y3), with the incentive of a hovering ruler, ready to crack down if your a’s and o’s were still round like print or if you closed the p.
Give me a fountain pen and I still write the way we were taught back then.