Handwriting at St Anthony’s

At St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School we are very proud of our pupil’s handwriting and take particular care in our cursive handwriting style. We use Letter-join’s on-line handwriting resource and Lesson Planners as the basis of our handwriting policy as it covers all the requirements of the National Curriculum.

Objective:

Handwriting is a basic skill that influences the quality of work throughout the curriculum. By the end of Key Stage 2 all pupils should have the ability to produce fluent, legible and, eventually, speedy joined-up handwriting, and to understand the different forms of handwriting used for different purposes.

Aims:

At St. Anthony’s, we believe that neat, well-formed handwriting is an important element in encouraging children to have self-respect and to take pride in their work. Children must be able to write with ease, speed and legibility to maximise the fluency, quality and quantity of their work. Cursive handwriting teaches pupils to join letters and words as a series of flowing movements and patterns. We believe that using this style raises standards across the whole school, developing confidence, accuracy, fluency and improved presentation.

At St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School, we aim:

• To provide equal opportunities for all pupils to achieve success in handwriting.
• To develop a neat, legible, speedy handwriting style using continuous cursive letters, this leads to producing letters and words automatically in independent writing.
• To develop accuracy and fluency.
• To help children recognise that handwriting is a form of communication and as such should be considered important in order for it to be effective.
• To establish and maintain high expectations for the presentation of written work.
• For pupils to understand, by the end of Year 6, the importance of neat presentation and the need for different letterforms (cursive, printed or capital letters) to help communicate meaning clearly.
• To promote confidence and self-esteem.
• To encourage children to take pride in their work.
• To build in cross-curricular links to broaden experience.
• To help children recognise that handwriting is a life-long skill and will be a fundamental element of all forms of written communication throughout their lives.
• To display neatly presented work around the school as a model of excellence for others to aspire to.

Pupils should experience coherence and continuity in the learning and teaching of handwriting across all school years and be encouraged to take pride in the presentation of their work. At St Anthony’s the children are proud to produce neat and presentable work. This work is celebrated through our Handwriting display, which is at the centre of our school.

St Anthony’s Handwriting Policy – September 2021

St Anthony’s Letter-Join Home Access

Letter-Join Online Resource