At Hillbourne, all of the children are taught to write with continuous cursive script. Our aim is to have continual cursive handwriting through the whole-school to ensure high levels of presentation. This helps all children to achieve a neat, legible style with correctly formed letters in cursive, fully joined, handwriting. Children develop fluency and speed whilst writing, so that eventually children are able to write words, sentences and paragraphs using correct letter orientation.

Pupils in Early Years will be given the opportunity to use a range of medium to practise writing words and letters, with the intention of all pupils in Reception being ready for the cursive script that will be taught from Year 1. All pupils will begin the day by being taught handwriting for 15 minutes using appropriately sized handwriting paper, pencils in Key Stage 1 and pen in key Stage 2.

The continuous cursive style of writing has many advantages. As well as looking neat, it is also beneficial to help children recall spelling patterns. By making each letter in one movement, children’s hands develop a ‘physical memory’ of it, making it easier to produce the correct shape. The style also assists in correct letter formation including avoiding letter reversal because letters and words flow from left to right, children are less likely to reverse letters which are typically difficult (like b/d or p/q). The continuous flow of writing ultimately improves speed and spelling.

Details of our continuous cursive script style can be found here:

https://www.teachhandwriting.co.uk

Please note we teach the children the continuous cursive letter choice 3 for all letters except ‘x’ which is taught as letter choice 4.

The style of each letter as used at Hillbourne is set out below: