Information on joined up writing in the UK

Confuzzled

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Lord knows, it seems that students these days aren't even expected to be able to spell any longer, so I honestly think you're over-thinking this one.

one of the reasons i'm so intent on being picky about certain things is that i don't want her to have any reason kids can pick on her for being home educated when she returns. so if she's desperately behind on something seen as basic the kids will pick up on it, and unfortunately some teachers will too

one of the reasons i know that by the scottish curriculum she's several years ahead because i belong to education city online, the scottish version that a lot of schools use, including the one here that she may go to if i wind up going to st andrews or dundee for my degree. alas they can't exactly cover joined up writing, it's all multiple choice type things

Confuzzled

kay74 wrote: »

A lot of scottish schools use Nelson script (can buy the handwring books / skills and development etc off Amazon sometimes). Some of the older teachers may also teach Gourdie script. Children often now start on Nelson script from the start whereas previously they would be taught o Nlson block and move to script at P3/4 ish. Hope this helps.

ooh thanks for the names of those scripts, i'll have a nosey around on google for them later...

Confuzzled

daska wrote: »

Teach them a good hand, forming the letters in the correct manner and they'll automatically learn to join it up as they write faster. I'd suggest using the following:
National Handwriting Association
Chris Jarman
If the school then dares to complain that they're not doing it properly you can ask why they disagree with the experts.

thank you very much for that, i've already bookmarked it in my Home Ed Handwriting folder!

tamarto

Confuzzled wrote: »

one of the reasons i'm so intent on being picky about certain things is that i don't want her to have any reason kids can pick on her for being home educated when she returns. so if she's desperately behind on something seen as basic the kids will pick up on it, and unfortunately some teachers will too

i know that by the scottish curriculum she's several years ahead because i belong to education city online, the scottish version that a lot of schools use, including the one here that she may go to if i wind up going to st andrews or dundee for my degree. alas they can't exactly cover joined up writing, it's all multiple choice type things

That is very close to where i live now! My childrens school uses education city a little, also it's not usually as hard to get your child into a school outwith catchment so you could visit a couple if you didn't like the feel of the catchment one or if they seem to have issue with the previous homeschooling.

Confuzzled

Spendless wrote: »

When's her birthday fall? The school intake year differs between England/Wales and Scotland, so whilst mine first learnt joined up writing in yrs 2-3 (aged between 6 and 8) it may be different in Scotland. Mine would be in a year lower than they are if we lived in Scotland. Might make a difference if a Scottish member can tell you what year she would be in and when they usually learn this.

her birthday is in early Oct, we left scotland during P2 and they weren't teaching it to her yet (in Edinburgh) i seem to recall it being taught to me in the states at around the age of 8 which is why i was guessing P4 might be the right time frame.

tamarto

I missread your first post and pressumed you were still abroad, why not pop to the school your daughter may be going to and ask them what you should be doing, i'm sure they'd be happy to as it is in both your interests and of course your daughters for her integration back into the school system to be as smooth as possible.

Confuzzled

HelenKA wrote: »

The children have been doing joined up writing exersizes for about a year and are now being encouraged to join most of their writing. They can develop their own style but should do their best to be ledgible.

The girls are in P4, and we are in Edinburgh. Happy to help more if you would like.

Helen

thank you helen, i will probably be pming you because edinburgh is one of my favoured locations for uni. we might possibly be able to get her back into her old school if i get accepted there which she is keen on and with them all being in the same year you may have me pestering... i mean, asking you nicely for ideas of where she should be on other subjects too

btw in edinburgh do they do that weird math where they do division in columns instead of long division? i dread the thought of 'new math' i once tried to help a child do his homework once and new math made me feel a right eejit when in school i was in gifted math!

ali-t

I am in Dundee and know the Education dept use Glow although I have no idea if it is for learning but would give you an idea about what is going on in the schools.

http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/glowscotland/index.asp

dizziblonde

There are issues potentially with the use of Sparklebox at the moment http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/t/375566.aspx or http://brendenisteaching.com/sparkle.php - I mention it only because it may affect your judgement in whether you want to continue using the resources off the site or not - lots of discussion on it on the TES forums.

As for cursive - I do supply and see lots of schools - and there's a split between those schools who essentially teach a chopped up pre-cursive script from the get-go (so all letters start on the line, looks slightly odd but means they're not having to learn changes to letter formation when they DO start to join) and those that start to join it up in about year 2/3. Some schools also like to teach children to join up digraphs (those double letter sounds like ch, sh, th) from the beginning as well to try to get them to see it as one whole unit of sound.

The two big schemes I see used in schools are Penpals (http://www.cambridge.org/uk/education/primary/literacy/penpals/default.htm) and Nelson (http://www.nelsonthornes.com/nelson_primary/new_html/nelhand_home.htm). Some schools use their own particular formation and it's a complete nightmare for me going into all these different schools and trying to be consistent with the class teacher but not knowing if they do loop ks or not, or if they join from ys with a loop or not.

Personally I've never pushed things too much - if a kid's got their own distinctive style, it's all correctly formed and joined correctly - I'm not going to go nuts over the fact they may have been taught a slightly different way of joining to/from an s, or if they've done a loopy k when the school style is straight.

Confuzzled

wendyl1967 wrote: »

I'm a Teaching Assistant in a primary school. We get lots of information off this site. Free publications can be ordered. Sorry it may not help with joined up writng but it may help with other questions.

http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/

Children are taught from Foundation stage (reception) how to form letters correctly then as they move into key stage 2 (juniors) they can join their letters. I would not worry about joining up her letters now, I would just make sure that she is forming them correctly.

thank you very much for that link i suspect it may allay some of my other 'fears' and hopefully i can catch up on anything we might not have felt was as important to start with.

her printing i find horrible but it's the new style (well new to me) with the wee tails etc which is to help them when they start joined up writing. she does appear to form them correctly though but i'm working on her making them smaller :rotfl:

we do a lot of her work online or play games etc she really doesn't care for worksheets however i've been having her do them because it's helping to tame her printing and, well she'll have them when she's back in mainstream school so best to get used to it now!

i've actually printed out a fair few of the sparklebox cursive worksheets but their script is strange to me on some letters (rather awkward some of them to be honest) which is what really got me digging into all of this.

i have however used their site for some other things in the past and they are a good resource, even at her age we still get some things that are helpful

another site i get a lot of worksheets from is schoolexpress, not everything is free but there is a considerable amount of free worksheets there, worth a look for anyone else that is interested