We aim for our children to leave Year 6 with the ability to write using their own style of fast, fluent, legible and sustainable handwriting, as well as other styles of writing for specific purposes. We believe that handwriting is integral to a child’s personal development and know that children’s engagement and self-esteem can be improved by their satisfaction and pride in good quality presentation. We aim to have a consistent approach to handwriting and presentation across EYFS, Key Stage One and Two.

We ensure that our children follow the requirements and recommendations of the National Curriculum. We share the aspirations that children’s handwriting should be ‘sufficiently fluent and effortless for them to manage the general demands of the curriculum’ and that ‘problems with forming letters do not get in the way of their writing down what they want to say’.

At Christ Church Primary School, we follow the Penpals scheme for handwriting from Year 1, which enables us to teach and secure the development of handwriting throughout the school.  Within Early Years, children first learn to write sounds through the ‘Read, Write, Inc’ phonics program.  Handwriting is taught in discrete handwriting lessons from Reception to Year 6 and develops sequentially throughout the school.