Handwriting that lasts
English · Key Stage 1 · The School
Before the pencil moves
Get your body right before the pencil moves. Feet flat. Bottom back in the chair. Paper tilted a little. Hold the pencil in a tripod grip. That means thumb and first finger pinching, resting on the third. Left-handers tilt the paper the other way. They sit where their elbow is free. This is not fussiness. A bad grip makes writing hurt later on. And it is far harder to unlearn than to learn.
Every letter has a starting point
A letter is a journey, not a picture. Most lower-case letters start at the top. The letters a, c, d, g, o and q all start the same way. Curve back and round, like a c. A child can draw the shape from the bottom and it still looks right. But then joining it up later will not work. Say the movement out loud as you write it: round, up, down.
The four families
LADDER letters are long straight strokes: l, i, t, u, j, y. CURLY CATERPILLAR letters begin with that same c curve: c, a, d, o, s, g, q, e, f. ONE-ARMED ROBOT letters come down and back up: r, b, n, h, m, k, p. ZIGZAG letters are straight diagonals: z, v, w, x. Practise by family, not in alphabet order. The hand is learning a movement, not an order.
The curly caterpillar family all start the same way. Make a c-shape from just below the top, going anticlockwise. That gives you c, a, d, g, o, q and s. Practise the c-shape ten times. Then add the finishing stroke for each letter. Now do the long ladder family. They all start at the top and go straight down: l, i, t, u, j, y. Learning by family fixes the STARTING POINT. That is what stops letters being drawn backwards.