Handwriting
At St Stephen Churchtown children get off to a flying start with their writing from nursery. Children have continuous opportunity to explore exciting mark making throughout the provision. Nursery use Squiggle While you Wiggle to support their gross motor skills through dance enabling them to develop their muscle strength to support future writing. Nursery children practice their name writing daily starting with the first letter of their name, first name and last name.
When children enter reception they move from Squiggle While Wiggle to Pen Disco focusing on fun fine motor skill control. Reception then continue to develop their letter formation to form CVC and short phrases and sentences preparing them for year one.
Our handwriting scheme is called ‘Letter-join’
All children learn to correctly form their letters through the handwriting scheme ‘Letter-join.’ The correct formation of all letters needs to be consistent and automatic and this may require a lot of practice. In order for this to happen, handwriting is taught in ways that enhance fluency and legibility. Handwriting is a skill which needs to be taught explicitly.
Since handwriting is essentially a movement skill, correct modelling of the agreed style by the class teacher is very important. The letter formation taught is, in the first instance, a cursive style, which ensures an early transition to joined handwriting.
