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Handwriting

At the Academy at St James we use cursive handwriting format.  We use the letter-join scheme for teaching letter formation and handwriting.  You can find some resources below.  Please ask your child’s teacher for details to login at home and use the system to practice handwriting.

Click the logo to access the letter-join website

Here is a guide to a helping your child have the correct grip (tripod grip) on a pencil to enable them to use a pen or pencil correctly.  There are different ways for left handed and right handed children.  Children under the age of four might not have developed an preference for a dominant hand yet.

Right handed grip

Left handed grip

Before children form recognisable letters they will start to make marks that are regular shapes.  Below you can find some examples of the marks and patterns you could use to encourage they to develop the control they have over a writing tool (pen or pencil).

handwriting patterns

Below is an example of how write lower case letters.

Cursive Alphabet

 

Long Ladder Letters

Handwriting ladder family

Curly Caterpillar Letters

Handwriting

One Armed Robot Letters

Handwriting one armed robot family

Zig Zag Letters

Handwriting zig zag family

 

Once children can form individual letters correctly we start to teach them to join and write whole words.  The word list below is the expected spelling list by the end of year 2.  Make sure to scroll through the pages, there are 10 in total.

KS1 HF Words
The Academy at St James - Aspire, Achieve, Believe

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