At Whitstable Junior School, we recognise that being able to write legibly and fluently is an important skill in being able to communicate language to readers. In our technological world it is still important for children to develop their handwriting and recognise the handwritten word as well as the typed one.

“I prefer the pen. There is something elemental about the glide and flow of nib and ink on paper.” 

^{James Robertson, Author}

The National curriculum requires children to write legibly, fluently and with increasing speed by the end of Key stage 2.

To enable this we teach regular handwriting lessons and use an interactive programme called Letter Join to teach cursive joins and writing at speed lessons. We concentrate on:

Quality: Ensuring letters are consistently sized with equal word spacing and that ascenders and descenders are parallel and do not touch words on the lines above and below.

Speed: Improving speed of handwriting to allow creative writing to take precedence over the task of handwriting and be able to take ‘quick notes’ at a faster pace.

Stamina: Having the strength and mobility to be able to write for longer periods of time without fatigue.

To achieve this:

Children need to be sat on their chair with both feet on the floor.

 

Building on KS1 skills, pupils will be writing passages of text neatly and speedily, labelling diagrams using printed letters appropriately and filling in forms using legible writing. The dictation resources will help to develop handwriting stamina when writing.

Pupils will have covered all the criteria necessary by the end of Year 6 to reach the standards set out in the 2014 National Curriculum for handwriting.

We expect the children to produce neatly presented work in all areas of the curriculum.