Handwriting is a useful, elegant and essential branch of education.
Our aim at Richmond Hill is for children to develop legible, fluent and efficient handwriting.
In general, children who feel good about their handwriting are far more motivated to write, therefore we spend lots of time at Richmond Hill working on children’s handwriting.
Handwriting, as in other skills, children will develop at different rates; when children first start we work hard on gross motor and fine motor skills following our programs of ‘Write Dance’ and ‘Dough Disco’. Please see more details on their pages. When children are ready we move onto learning to form letters correctly; the school handwriting font is Primary Sassoon cursive font, and teachers will follow teaching letters to the pattern of:
Letter formation | ‘Long ladder letters i.e. letters l, t, i, u, j, y. |
‘Curly caterpillar’ letters - These are anti-clockwise and round, i.e: c, a, g, q, o, e, f, s, and numbers: 0, 6, 8, 9 | |
‘Bouncing ball’ letters: r, n, m, p, h, b, d, p, r. Numbers 2, 3, 5 follow a clockwise direction. | |
Finally teach the ‘Zigzag’ letters: v, w, x, k, z. Numbers: 1, 4, 7. |
Here are some examples of our progression in handwriting:
Hamdaan Autumn 1 16' and Autumn 2 18'
Gabriel Autumn 1 16' and Autumn 2 18'
Eshal Autumn 1 16' and Autumn 2 18'
Maria Autumn 1 16' and Autumn 2 18'
As a school we have developed a document which shows the steps of progression our learners will take in their handwriting journey with us. This begins with mark making and ends with children being able to write consistently appropriate sized letters on the line. Please see the document below for more details.