Do Schools Teach 'Joined Up' Handwriting These Days?

My daughters all have great handwriting- one particular lovely.

My sons' handwriting, not so beautifully formed.
One of my sons has always written like a spider on acid.

So I don’t know how long handwriting will be necessary

So how are we going to communicate in a post apocalyptic world when all the computers go down?

Think it will never happen? Think again.

My mother had to teach Marion Richardson at a school she joined. She first had to learn it herself and it completely changed her writing style.

It has made me deeply sceptical about graphology ever since.

I am not a fan of teaching “joined up writing” for very young children. Firstly,all the writing they see in books and around them is in print. Therefore this reinforcement is reduced. Secondly, learning to read involves various strategies without adding another demand on the immediate task in hand. As said before you are depriving them of the synchronisation of seeing print and the writing they are striving to achieve. The ability to read and write is intellectually demanding and to this end children should be taught that it is possible and enjoyable in order that confidence is not lost. It is only too easy to teach a child that it is difficult.

I don’t think they teach any kind of writing! My 16 year old granddaughter is very smart but her writing resembles that of a 7 year old!

Copperplate writing was what I was taught at school. Beautiful if done correctly and my father had lovely writing skills

Farmor15
I do wonder for how long hand writing will continue to be taught/ used.

Good question.
IMO the main issues are
1. Availability of IT resources for all children.
We learnt during Covid that not everyone has access to a device at home and computer keyboards tend to use upper case letters.

2. Speed
For now, at least in KS1, it will go on for a while. Apart from anything else it’s good for fine motor development, both writing letters and numbers. Even a digital signature needs some letter formation.

The advent of tablets makes it easier to teach letter recognition because the keyboard letters are lower case, and with the exception of a and q they look the same as they find in their early reading books.

The speed that will be the problem.
The only way to get faster at keyboard skills is to use them.
Many adults are rapid typists, not because they’ve formally learnt to touch type, but because they use the skill every day.

Children would also get faster if they used keyboards more often, not just for gaming, but the interim period whilst they speed up would mean lower output of written work (less marking👏👏).

e.g. some KS1 children can fill a side of A4 paper with writing. How much time would need to be devoted to keyboard skills to achieve that?

So I don’t know how long handwriting will be necessary, but while it is, it should be neat and legible.

I was taught Marion Richardson style in the early sixties. He sister taught us art.

ixion

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

I was too that was in late 60's so it was around for a while.
Always in Ink as well. I won an award for my handwriting, it's nothing resembling that now.

ixion

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

So was I. Interesting to have a similar educational start.

Another name for joined up writing , apart from cursive, is "running hand". I think that's what it was called when I was in school.

However, whatever it was called, my handwriting was always bad, like my parents'. They both typed everything, as did I until computers came along - I was an early adopter. I do wonder for how long hand writing will continue to be taught/ used?

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.

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

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.

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.'

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

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?"

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!

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!

yes they do

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.

It is "cursive" writing not "joined up"

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.

😆 Grannynannywanny.

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!