Handwriting matters more than ever, and mastering correct letter formation is key to helping pupils achieve neat, legible writing. Here, experienced teacher Sue Drury delivers practical tips, resources and strategies to get every child writing confidently and correctly.
After years in the wilderness, handwriting is back. Many of us would have grown up, or even started teaching, in the days when there was a sort of take-it-or-leave-it approach to handwriting. As long as you could read what had been written, no one really minded. Or so it seemed.
Nowadays, of course, it matters once more. In fact, it matters so much that it could affect assessment grades, so we really do need to take it seriously. Here are some ideas to make sure your class toes the elegantly flowing line.
Expectations
The first thing you need to understand is the expectations. Essentially, you need to look at the teacher assessment frameworks (TAFs) for writing at the end of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.
Not surprisingly, you’ll find the most prescriptive lists of requirements in the Key Stage 1 TAF:
- Working towards the expected level: when it comes to letter formation, it's about forming lowercase letters with the correct size, orientation, placement, starting position and finishing position.
- Expected standard: capital letters are thrown into the mix.
- Greater depth standard: this includes evidence of the horizontal or diagonal strokes needed to started joining letters.
By the end of Key Stage 2, pupils are required to produce legible, joined-up writing (and maintain this when writing at speed, for those working at the expected standard.)
Start them young
With so much resting on their handwriting, it’s best to start them early. Early Years teachers should have set them on the right path but Key Stage 1 teachers will likely need to keep focusing on letter formation.
Fortunately, there are more and more resources that can help children know exactly where to start and finish their letters properly, so don’t be shy about using them.
This resource pack offers worksheets and activities to develop fine motor skills, including repeating patterns, drawing shapes and following lines, all designed to improve pencil grip and control. It supports pupils in building the foundational skills needed for confident, legible handwriting.
Meanwhile, this resource pack provides pre-cursive and print handwriting worksheets for every letter of the alphabet, including tracing posters, practice words and lined exercises for both lowercase and uppercase letters.
Special cases
For pupils who struggle, try giving them sensory materials with which to practise, such as trays of sand or shaving foam.
You should also be alert to pupils who adopt left-hand writing. Thankfully, we’re long past the days when teachers used to force left-handed children to use their right hand.
Even so, it can be a problem, so you will probably want to see what resources are available to them. This is where your SENCo should come into their own.
At the other end of the scale, don’t feel bad about encouraging a high-achiever to focus on correct letter formation, no matter how precociously well they have composed their first novel at the age of six. They will thank you in the end.
Model correct letter formation
Extend your zero-tolerance approach to handwriting to include yourself. It is vitally important for pupils to see you using correct letter formation whenever you are putting pen to paper.
So, if you have slipped into any bad habits over the years, or even if you have simply spent so much of your life typing that you have lost your pen-wielding muscle memory, make sure that you work hard to get your skills up to scratch.
What about joined-up handwriting?
As mentioned earlier, your greater depth children should be in a position to start joining their letters by the end of Key Stage 1.
Teaching cursive writing should be a natural extension of what has gone before. This is because correct letter formation involves finishing a letter in the perfect place for flicking across to the next.
Indeed, the best handwriting resources provide letter templates that allow the pupil to either stop at the end of the letter or start making the diagonal or horizontal strokes needed to join some letters. Just remember that there are some letters that are considered unsuitable for joining.
This pack offers cursive handwriting worksheets for every letter of the alphabet, including tracing posters, practice words and lined exercises for both lowercase and uppercase letters. It helps pupils practise correct letter formation and develop fully legible, joined-up handwriting in line with the National Curriculum.
This handwriting pack uses classic poems in cursive form to help pupils develop fluency and practise a range of letter joins. With tracing sheets, handwriting lines and lined paper, it’s ideal for reinforcing speed and legibility once all letter joins have been taught.
Insist on good habits
This is really about starting as you mean to go on, but there are some other things that can help. Make sure your pupils have got a good grip on their pencils. If necessary, get special grips or triangular pencils to help.
Check that they are sitting properly, holding the book or paper with their free hand and not slouching. If the expectation is that they join their letters, make it a requirement, even if it takes them a little longer at the beginning – they will soon pick up the pace.
And once they are able to demonstrate consistently good pencil work, reward them with a pen licence. Soon enough, everyone will want one!
Maintaining good habits
With so much to learn in school, it sometimes helps to have ever-present reminders for the pupils. Desk-top reference materials, such as alphabets of appropriately formed letters, can be very effective.
Or why not try our ‘rules for writing’ display pack, designed to remind Year 1 pupils exactly what is expected of every sentence they write?
Practise, practise, practise
Make time to practise handwriting, especially in the earlier years. If professional sports players can practise the same drill, day in, day out, in order to perfect their skills, school children can with their handwriting.
Use handwriting worksheets or books with special guidelines to promote the correct size and placement of letters if necessary.
Just make sure your pupils are clear which parts of which letters should go where – they can be rather confusing to the uninitiated.
Dual-purpose handwriting practise
Take every opportunity to give handwriting practise a dual purpose. Take our phonics phase 5 comprehension worksheets, for example.
As well as exercising pupils’ blending and comprehension skills, they provide good handwriting practise too.
The same is true of our Year 5/6 statutory spelling words practise pack, which provides space for writing the words neatly and properly while promoting the pupils’ ability to understand and spell them.
Remember, as with most things in life, first impressions count. By helping your pupils to develop neat, well-formed handwriting, you’ll be doing them a favour for life. It’s just another way in which you can have a big hand in their future success.
Sue Drury qualified as a primary teacher in 1999. Teaching pupils from Year 1 to Year 8, she has held a variety of positions including maths and English subject leader, year leader, and assistant headteacher. Sue has mentored students and NQTs, offering guidance and advice using her years of experience. She created many of Plazoom's literacy resources.