Handwriting At Home

At Whitehall Infant School we aim to ensure that all children develop a clear, legible and fluent style with most children beginning to join letters by the end of Key Stage One. This will be achieved by children achieving the following goals:

• End of EYFS: Children can form all lower case correctly and introduced to capital letters in the Summer Term.
• End of Year 1: Children can form letters correctly with relevant size and position in relation to the line
• End of Year 2: Most children are beginning to join letters

Seating and Posture

A good seating position is important for preparing your child for writing. Encourage your child:

• Sit with their bottom towards the back of the chair, and back straight.
• Pull chairs in to the table so they can fit a fist between their tummy and the table
• Keep both feet flat on the floor.
• Rest their arm on the table.
• Secure their paper with their opposite hand if they wish.
• Angle their paper / book if they wish.

Pencil Grip

Pupils are encouraged to use the ‘Pincer’ grip from Reception.

Use the ‘pinch and flick’ terminology, encouraging pupils to pick up the pencil by pinching it at the bottom of the pencil, then flicking it over so that the pencil rests on their hand between the thumb and forefinger. The middle finger then rests behind the pencil to provide support.

Left Handed Pupils

Left handed pupils should be taught to:

• Position their paper to the left of the centre and then angle the paper for comfort.
• Hold the pencil using the ‘tripod’ grip, between the thumb, index and middle fingers.
• Keep their hand and wrist under the writing line.

Forming Letters

Pupils are taught letter formation as each sound is introduced in Read Write Inc. There is a mnemonic taught to help pupils remember how to form each letter. 

Moving to lined paper

Initially , your child should learn to write letters on plain paper and are encouraged to write anywhere on the page and also use a range of mediums such as paints, sand and water. When they are more confident with the letter, they then produce it on wide lined paper, where they can be taught about the relative letter size.

As pupils begin writing letters on lines, they also learn how the letters sit on the line. The school uses an analogy of underground, grass and sky to help demonstrate this:

            Grass: a c e m n o r s u v w x z (these letters sit on the line)

            Sky: b d f h l k t (these are the tall letters that sit on the line)

            Underground: g j p q y (these are the letters where part of the letter goes below the line)