Handwriting Progression at The Kennet Federation

Following DfE guidance children in Early Years use a non-cursive script to ensure all children form letters correctly.

Progression of LetterJoin through the school

Early Years: Nursery Expectations

• Gross motor activities available daily within the interior and exterior learning environment
• Fine motor activities available daily within the interior and exterior learning environment
• Dough disco weekly, using play dough progressing to ‘theraputty’ to strengthen hand and finger muscles
• Weekly physical activity sessions that develop core strength, coordination and posture
• Staff to model the language of movement with the children

Early Years: Reception Expectations

• Daily core muscle and flexibility movements following exercises from an occupational health professional
• Daily handwriting sessions that develop in complexity, starting with gross motor, fine motor, pattern making, write dance, culminating with correct print letter formation
• Use of the RWInc. mnemonics to aid correct letter formation to decrease cognitive load
• Letter formation is taught in letter families: Long ladders, Curly Caterpillars, One-armed Robots and Zig-zags
• Continue with regular ‘theraputty’ ‘dough disco’ sessions
• Use of daily hand therapy eggs for children who require hand muscle strengthening
• Extra support using the ‘Motor Skills United’ Occupational Therapy Program for those children as identified as struggling
• By the end of Reception all children hold a pencil correctly, sit in the correct posture and form the majority of letters correctly
• Children use triplus pencils for writing.
• Errors in pencil grip and letter formation will be immediately addressed, modelled and corrected.
• Staff use and model the correct script when writing

Key Stage 1: Year 1 Expectations

• Daily 15 minute handwriting sessions
• Letter formation is taught in letter families: Long ladders, Curly Caterpillars, One-armed Robots and Zig-zags
• Continued use of the RWInc. mnemonics to aid correct letter formation and decrease cognitive load
• By the end of Year 1 all children form all letters and numbers correctly, letters are of a consistent size and children can consistently write on a line
• By the end of Year 1 all children hold a pencil correctly, sit in the correct posture

Key Stage 1: Year 2 Expectations

• Teaching progresses from five short, to two longer lessons, per week
• Lessons will include: letter families, high frequency words, sequencing sentences and dictation exercises
• Handwriting lessons will also support spelling, grammar and punctuation
• Joining techniques will be introduced towards the end of the year
• Practice two letter one sound joins
• Lined and highlighted paper used to enable those children who are finding size consistency challenging.
• By the end of Year 2 children will use a consistent script, fluidly and with automaticity
• By the end of Year 2 children will have developed fluency and speed in their writing and be able to use lower and upper case letters, numbers and symbols.
• Children not on track to achieve our expectations will receive additional support through small group intervention.

Lower Key Stage 2: Year 3 Expectations

• Lessons will be for 40-60 minutes per week.
• Children will be taught the diagonal and horizontal strokes required to join letters and understand which letters, when adjacent to one another, are best left un-joined to increase legibility and fluency  
• Lessons will include dictation, double letters, number vocabulary, palindromes, tongue twisters, MFL, onomatopoeia, simile and statutory spellings. 
• By the end of Year 3 pupils should be using a consistent cursive script, fluidly
• By the end of Year 3 pupils should be using cursive script throughout their independent work

Lower Key Stage 2: Year 4 Expectations

• Ensuring the down stokes of letters are parallel and equidistant, that lines of writing are spaced sufficiently so that the ascenders and descenders of letters do not touch.
• Continue to build fluency, consistency and automaticity of the cursive script
• Promote meaningful links with other subjects.  For example, labelling in geography, producing posters in English etc.
• Continue with dedicated handwriting practice totalling 60 minutes a week.
• By the end of Year 4 pupils should have size appropriate handwriting across the curriculum

Upper Key Stage 2: Year 5 Expectations

• Cursive handwriting reinforcement across the curriculum subjects
• Continue with dedicated handwriting sessions across the teaching week, these may be starters to other sessions
• Children will be expected to write at length in many subjects
• By the end of the year all children should be using a consistent, neat cursive style, across all curriculum areas

Upper Key Stage 2: Year 6 Expectations

• Continue with cursive handwriting reinforcement across the curriculum subjects

• Challenging dictation exercises will boost their handwriting speed, stamina and fluency.
• Form filling and labelling etc. will require a broad range of handwriting styles to be used and practiced through the year
• Handwriting lessons can be used to support Year 6 pupils in meeting the expected standards for spelling, punctuation and grammar, with lots of SPaG preparation, as well handwriting practice.
• By the end of the year children should be clear about what standard of handwriting is appropriate for a particular task, for example, quick notes, a final handwritten version, an un-joined style or the use of capital letters
• By the end of the year neat, legible, fluid handwriting should be automatic so that it does not interfere with the cognitive process

If any child is not on track to reach our expectations in KS2 they will receive additional support through small group intervention groups using the Letter-Join recovery programme.