Information on joined up writing in the UK

bestpud

This is interesting as my dd, age 8, is struggling to write neatly and has recently been put in a small group of children who have a 'joined up handwriting' lesson with one of the TAs once a week.

Trouble is, dd is getting confused as she says her teacher wants it one way and the TA says another, and she doesn't know which to do!!

Yesterday she was a little upset as she said the TA went back to the classroom with them after the lesson and only showed dd's handwriting to the teacher - she said she was worried what is going to happen.

On quizzing her some more she said the teacher has told her she doesn't think she is getting anywhere with her extra lesson as her writing is as hard to read as ever.

I was going to have a chat with the TA today, as dd was reluctant to talk to the teacher about it, but we decided in the end that she will write as the TA has shown her for today and see what the teacher says about it. I told her to just focus on doing it that way and not worry about it being the right or wrong way iykwim?

I will be interested to see what she says when she comes home...

I hadn't realised there may be two different ways of writing! I thought perhaps dd is just a bit confused, or has got the wrong end of the stick!

Sorry to hijack your thread Confuzzled, but what would the teachers on here suggest I do about this? Should I go and have a chat with the teacher/TA about it, do you think? Although it sounds as though they have already discussed it hence showing her dd's work only...

Confuzzled - sorry again but I guess this shows you may be right to think ahead on this one as it isn't clear cut!

Confuzzled

bestpud wrote: »

Sorry to hijack your thread Confuzzled, but what would the teachers on here suggest I do about this? Should I go and have a chat with the teacher/TA about it, do you think? Although it sounds as though they have already discussed it hence showing her dd's work only...

Confuzzled - sorry again but I guess this shows you may be right to think ahead on this one as it isn't clear cut!

no worries, this is the perfect place for you to ask about it! personally i'd speak with whomever you feel more comfortable with, be it her teacher or the TA then ask that person to work it out amongst themselves and report back asap and point out that they have your poor daughter in a tizzy worrying she's done something wrong!

HelenKA_2

We're not into long division as yet! They're on to 7xtable and there's a lot of emphasis on 'line sums' ie 3x7=21. They are doing minus and plus using hundreds and going across the boundary ie 101-3=

The girls are in a composite class and are the younger year group. Can I ask where abouts you were in Edinburgh - but not if that makes you uncomfortable.

I feel very sad that you worry that your DD will be picked on - we have never had that experience and the girls school has - and adheres to - a zero tolerance policy.

If I can be of any more help let me know.

Confuzzled

HelenKA wrote: »

We're not into long division as yet! They're on to 7xtable and there's a lot of emphasis on 'line sums' ie 3x7=21. They are doing minus and plus using hundreds and going across the boundary ie 101-3=

The girls are in a composite class and are the younger year group. Can I ask where abouts you were in Edinburgh - but not if that makes you uncomfortable.

I feel very sad that you worry that your DD will be picked on - we have never had that experience and the girls school has - and adheres to - a zero tolerance policy.

If I can be of any more help let me know.

thanks for the specifics on the maths, i've been wondering about that actually!

she used to attend preston street primary, they were pretty good about the bullying thing, i suspect that had to be especially vigilent since so many children in that school are kids in the edinburgh uni's family block of flats and come from so many different areas of the world! i can imagine how hard it must be for those kids as a lot of them don't speak english when they arrive so plenty of 'teasing' fodder but thankfully there seemed to be little fuss when we were there.

she could be just fine, but i remember how harsh it can be to be the new kid as i was the new kid 10 times! most places i did ok but a few made my life hell for a few months, one for a few years so not nice memories in that respect.

i think it would be lovely if she could go back to her old school but marchmont has a good one too and that areas catchment is another area i'd consider living in, now let's just hope edinburgh accepts me as a student!

MadDogWoman_2

My DD is only 2 but I'm already wondering how the heck I'm going to help her learn to write cursive when I can't even do it myself properly, DH prints as well due to dyslexia.

So I'm thinking if she struggles with it I might talk to her school about it then and explain why.

MDW

Confuzzled

that sounds like a good idea maddogwoman, these days most schools are clued up on dyslexia, dyspraxia etc and tend to be more helpful then in the past, especially if the parent is coming forward before a problem presents itself to try and avoid it becoming a big issue for the child and in turn their teacher.

even if the 2 year old doesn't have any learning disabilities at least you'd be clued up on how to overcome your own troubles so you can help him/her when the time comes for printing and cursive etc

personally i think the world is better off with me NOT doing the proper cursive i was taught, though part of my problem is that as a child i appearantly wrote 'left handed' even though i am and always have been right handed. i remember getting all +'s on my report card and a - in handwriting and being terribly upset by that as young as only 6 or 7. my mom went in circles with the school over it so i wound up overcompensating and writing in a very bubbly sort of way which then morphed into a rather deflated loopy manner (all hard to read, much worse than the original 'wrong handed' style) now my handwriting, on the rare occassion i use it for more than taking notes, is a mixute of cursive and print which is actually reasonably legible but what trouble i had to go through to get there and i do feel sorry for my teachers as when i was in school we didn't hand in typewritten or computer printed work.

i've also been working with my daughter on her typing skills as i feel these will be more important schoolwise, i suppose that's a sign of the times really. she's been a dab hand with the computer from age 3 but her typing is still a bit slow, i had a link for an online typing test and a few typing games but sadly i've lost them...

bestpud

Confuzzled wrote: »

that sounds like a good idea maddogwoman, these days most schools are clued up on dyslexia, dyspraxia etc and tend to be more helpful then in the past, especially if the parent is coming forward before a problem presents itself to try and avoid it becoming a big issue for the child and in turn their teacher.

even if the 2 year old doesn't have any learning disabilities at least you'd be clued up on how to overcome your own troubles so you can help him/her when the time comes for printing and cursive etc

personally i think the world is better off with me NOT doing the proper cursive i was taught, though part of my problem is that as a child i appearantly wrote 'left handed' even though i am and always have been right handed. i remember getting all +'s on my report card and a - in handwriting and being terribly upset by that as young as only 6 or 7. my mom went in circles with the school over it so i wound up overcompensating and writing in a very bubbly sort of way which then morphed into a rather deflated loopy manner (all hard to read, much worse than the original 'wrong handed' style) now my handwriting, on the rare occassion i use it for more than taking notes, is a mixute of cursive and print which is actually reasonably legible but what trouble i had to go through to get there and i do feel sorry for my teachers as when i was in school we didn't hand in typewritten or computer printed work.

i've also been working with my daughter on her typing skills as i feel these will be more important schoolwise, i suppose that's a sign of the times really. she's been a dab hand with the computer from age 3 but her typing is still a bit slow, i had a link for an online typing test and a few typing games but sadly i've lost them...

I quite like the BBC for typing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

Confuzzled

bestpud wrote: »

I quite like the BBC for typing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

ooh that's pure dead brilliant so it is! (played with it myself )

thank you very much for that :T

BabyFranny

If you're child's struggling, just squidge the letters together and it should be fine. :D:D

margaretclare

A lot of people use an italic script nowadays, in fact I use a version of it myself, without loops and with upright letters. I was never taught this, have developed it for myself over many years.