Intent: 

The objective of teaching handwriting, in line with the DfE 2025 Writing Framework, is to ensure pupils acquire the automaticity in transcription necessary for effective written communication. By teaching handwriting explicitly, systematically, and progressively from the Reception year, the school aims to free up pupils' working memory, allowing them to focus on the composition of their ideas. St. John’s strives for all pupils to achieve a legible, consistent, and fluent handwriting style, enabling them to express their knowledge and understanding confidently across the entire curriculum. This includes establishing consistent ‘ready to write’ routines and providing appropriate resources to support every child's development in this foundational skill.

Implementation:

Handwriting at St. John’s focuses on the following and we ensure each aspect is explicitly taught to all our pupils:

• Formation: How individual letters and characters are shaped.
• Legibility: How clear and readable the writing is to others.
• Consistency: The uniformity of letter size, spacing, and slant.
• Fluency: The smoothness and ease with which one writes, often related to speed.
• Style: This can vary from manuscript (printed letters) to cursive (joined letters), and even within these styles, each person develops a unique personal hand.

Handwriting skills are taught regularly and systematically throughout the school, ensuring there is clear progression from Early Years to our Year 6 pupils. This allows us to adopt a consistent approach, taking our pupils on a journey through the progressive stages suggested in the National Curriculum. At St. John’s we use the Twinkl Handwriting Scheme. It uses a range of teaching strategies to embed writing fluency skills.

The Twinkl Handwriting Scheme teaches learners to form letters using a letter families approach. This means letters are taught in a sequence according to the movements required to form them. Each letter family is represented by a memorable mascot, who guides children on their writing journey. The letter families used are:

Impact:

Handwriting is a skill which affects written communication across the curriculum. Our aim is that children can write with ease, speed, and legibility. By Year 6, children will use cursive handwriting using flowing movements and patterns. This handwriting should be demonstrated in all writing across the curriculum.