Do Schools Teach 'Joined Up' Handwriting These Days?

Yes I was taught copperplate writing in primary school. As someone mentioned earlier, the pen dod not leave the paper until the word was completed. I agree that the birth certicates etc of years gone by, have beautiful easy to read writing

When I started primary school in 1950, I had to take a piece of slate, a slate pencil and a small bottle of water to clean the slate after using it. I can't remember what I was taught first, if it was numbers or letters. I remember when I began to write it was with a pencil and then the class moved on to a pen with a nib and ink in the inkwell on the desk. There were many splodges of ink on our paper which I think was stiff material

Seagull72 Cursive handwriting aids spelling skills.

Yes, if I can't remember a spelling when I'm typing I stop and write out the word, my brain remembers the spelling that way.
Children are taught to use a tripod grip in primary schools today, my 5 year old grandson's report said that he was using it.

Redhead56

It was called cursive writing years ago.

They still teach children to leave "tails" on their letters at my grandchildren's primary school, this later enables them to join letters together.

Yes, in the primary school our grandson is leaving today.

Sparklefizz

Grannynannywanny

I remember a few years back when my granddaughter was 7 and I wrote a message on her birthday card. Thinking I was making it easier for her to read I didn’t use my usual cursive writing. She read the message and after a pause said “I wonder why your teacher didn’t show you how to join up your letters Gran, I can show you if you like” 😆

Love it!

My daughter carefully taught her daughter to write all the letters before she started school. She came home and told her mum off for not teaching her to do the curls and flicks!

My Dh had an aunt who taught English Literature at a private school in Glasgow and her handwriting was immaculate, my DCs used love getting a card from her, because it made them feel special. My eldest DS is left handed but his cursive writing is perfect, which is head teacher told us was unusual for a left handed writer

Cursive handwriting aids spelling skills.

I'm glad you said that, Seagull72. One of the key components of good spelling is the muscle memory promoted by writing spellings by hand as every word has a unique sequence of movements involved in spelling it. That's why fluent handwriters can be fluent as the muscle memory associated with each word takes over, no need to think of the individual letters, just 'think' the word and the muscles take over 😁

I'm sure that touch typists develop the same sort of muscle memory for words, but it's harder for the 'hunt & peckers' (like me 😆)

Research has shown that students who hand write their notes have some advantage over those who type them when it comes to remembering the material. Also, as I saw pointed out recently, students with laptops have more opportunity for distraction from the job in hand...

I'm in rare agreement with BigLouis pointing out that we're rather stymied when technology fails. In the recent world wide outage of Microsoft based IT systems airlines resorted to writing out boarding cards by hand and doctors did the same with prescriptions. It's a good job they'd learned handwriting...

When I was at infants school we called it 'real' writing.
I'm sure different areas called it different things.

CW52

Back in ‘my day’ we called it ‘real writing’ 😮 I now live in Australia and our grandchildren call it cursive but I don’t think it’s taught 🤔. One of the things I found strange was that they had to earn a ‘Pen Licence’. Before they were allowed to write with a ballpoint pen (or a Biro as we knew them!)

Earn a pen licence - because your handwriting, whatever style had to be legible before you got a pen. It’s like a driving licence. You have to learn how to drive before you have a licence to drive a car.
Both theoretically a good idea.

Oreo

Day one?
Four year olds can’t usually write or spell anything.

I still have a copy of a poem my daughter copied out when she was 4. She wanted to go into the handwriting competition that my son had at his school. All 4 of them could read and write before the age of 5.

My DGD learns joined up writing at her primary school in Bristol. My DGSs, who live in Canada can only print. Apparently, they don't teach joined up writing in Canadian schools.

i was taught italic handwriting at my junior school as the head preferred it. when i got to grammar school i was told firmly that italic writing was too slow so i had to write in a cursive script instead. i was never taught this so my writing became a scrawl which it still is today.

Yes they defo get taught. Well in Scotland anyway...My grandson is 11 and he was taught and I am aretired teacher..so yes..

Back in ‘my day’ we called it ‘real writing’ 😮 I now live in Australia and our grandchildren call it cursive but I don’t think it’s taught 🤔. One of the things I found strange was that they had to earn a ‘Pen Licence’. Before they were allowed to write with a ballpoint pen (or a Biro as we knew them!)

Cursive handwriting aids spelling skills. It is important to try and develop this at a young age. Having a tripod grip will make writing easier in the long term. I don’t believe this is re-inforced these days. Very difficult for left-handed pupils to develop writing skills. With the use of computers, handwriting has lost its necessity but it is still important to develop writing skills. I have found that because I use the computer so much, when I do need to write anything, it isn’t as fluid as it used to be.

My primary school (1953-1959) insisted on cursive/copperplate, we were told not to take the pen off the paper until we had finished the word we were writing. We were taught how to hold the pencil/pen properly. My grandparents left school at 14 but had beautiful handwriting all their lives. The handwriting on old Census forms is perfectly formed. The 1911 Census return was filled in by the family and although many of my forebears were manual workers all had lovely handwriting on the form - they were all in the same style. The Census returns are a pleasure to look at. I still join up all my letters. Many people today don't seem to join up their letters at all and distort their hands and wrists to write, I wonder if in years to come they'll pay the price with arthritis and other problems. As a student I could take notes very quickly in cursive. When I learnt shorthand, at the slower speeds I found I could keep up in longhand with the dictation and didn't need the shorthand.

Doesn't cursive writing form part of the National Curriculum?

17 year old GD learnt cursive writing from the time she started school. She attended her local state primary.

Nowadays, schools are following the practice of other countries, GrannyRose15, in teaching cursive writing almost from the start. That has been the case for a few years, according to my DD2, who has been teaching in primary for more than 20 years and is now a Headteacher.

We are one of the few countries that teaches children to write twice - once in a printed style and then joined up. I suppose it’s three times he you count typing. Most countries teach cursive writing from the beginning of school.

If it is on the curriculum it is very poorly taught. I have the devil of a job teaching my private pupils joined up writing because they don’t appear to have been taught at school. It’s hard to teach something one day a week if it isn’t reinforced every day at school.

I have dyspraxia, my handwriting has always looked as if it was done by a drunken spider. DS has the same problem.

The trouble is dyspraxia also means that my typing is all over the place and proof reading not very good either.

As all of you will have, undoubtedly, noticed.

biglouis

*So I don’t know how long handwriting will be necessary*

So how are we going to communicate in a post apocalyptic world when all the computers go down?

Think it will never happen? Think again.

I agree. I accept that handwriting is becoming less important in today's technology-driven world, but I think it is still a vital skill to have. Whether it has to be cursive (joined up, whatever you wish to call it), is another debate altogether, I guess. I've often been complimented on my handwriting, but I accept that not everyone's writing skills are as good as others. My son has never been good at it, for instance.

My 13 year old learned in primary. However she has a poor pencil grip and her writing flits between the two in her school books.