Do Schools Teach 'Joined Up' Handwriting These Days?

Yes, I think so,
I know both my grandsons handwriting was joined up by about eight or so, and I doubt it was self taught.

It was called cursive writing years ago.

Our Primary teach cursive from day one

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

It will become obsolete in time I think as future generations do less and less writing anything by hand.

Oreo

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

Absolutely day one, I am talking about letter formation, would add that lots of four year olds will have a stab at writing their own name.

Cursive writing is taught at both primary schools GC attend and in the two that the older GC attended before senior school.

We teach cursive writing from Y1. We did try it from Reception, but the incredibly wide variation in fine motor skills made us decide to focus on formation first, and learning to add flicks.

It first became a focus in KS1 when you couldn’t achieve Level 3 SAT in writing if your writing didn’t show some evidence of joining up.

At SAT moderation meetings it was entertaining to see what was judged by different schools as some evidence of joining up in order to give level 3.

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” 😆

My eight year old grandchild was taught joined up writing from the start. My seventeen year old grandchild was not.

My feeling is that cursive script should be introduced in Year 2, and that by years 4 and 5 handwriting should be fully joined up.
Do they still award a few marks purely for Handwriting in KS2 SATS?
By Year 6 some pupils start dropping the uncomfortable joins, and I would find that acceptable because I do that myself!

😆 Grannynannywanny.

I was having my tonsils removed when my class learned joined up handwriting. I had to try to catch up by trying to form my letters from the examples on the roller board. I found the fancy fs, ts and zeds particularly difficult.
My grandchildren learnt cursive in school in Scotland.

It is "cursive" writing not "joined up"

We used to call it ‘joined up’. That was in the olden days before we learnt words like cursive. I’m sorry if I seem rude but I understood the question.
The answer is yes they do.

yes they do

It's near enough the same thing, whatever it's called.
I'm sure the National Currriculum refers to "unjoined" writing, so joined-up seems a fair description of cursive!

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!

mabon1

It is "cursive" writing not "joined up"

So maybe I should go back 63 years and point out to my teacher "Hey - it's called 'cursive' Miss, not 'joined up'! What they teach you at college?"

My grandson writes this way. He is 9 now but has been writing like this for a couple of years at least.

Cursive writing was part of the National Curriculum until at least 2011; whether it is still taught at primary level I don't know, but the number of young adults who do not know how to hold a pen correctly is horrifying.
Before cursive it was described as 'copperplate.'

nanaK54

Our Primary teach cursive from day one

My granddaughter (just 5) forms her letters correctly so she can join up some words already. I don't know when they formally teach it but if you have the "tails" on your letters it's not so hard, as Molly says.

We were taught the Marion Richardson style in J3 (late 1950s).

ixion I wish ! We were taught script in first year juniors (now Y3), with the incentive of a hovering ruler, ready to crack down if your a’s and o’s were still round like print or if you closed the p.
Give me a fountain pen and I still write the way we were taught back then.