Primary School
At Pudsey Waterloo Primary School, children in Reception and Year 1 are taught basic letter formation without any joining strokes, both as part of their phonics lessons and in general handwriting practice. The letter formation is that recommended in the Floppy's Phonics scheme.
In year 2, children are gradually taught how to add joining strokes to their letters as they form them once their letter formation is accurate and secure.
In year 3 children are taught how to join their letters in a continuous cursive style, starting each word 'on the line' before writing the whole word in one continuous movement.
Children gradually move to writing with pens during year 3; and in year 4 and beyond, writing with a pen is the norm.
Children in Key Stage 2 continue to be taught handwriting regularly and explicitly. The intention is for all children, where possible, to write legibly and fluently in joined handwriting. Teachers use the Letterjoin resource to support their teaching and parents have access to this scheme to use at home too.
You can see examples of the school's handwriting scheme and examples of children's work elsewhere on this page.