School announcements

Thank you so much to all those parents and carers that attended the KS1 Curriculum Evening on Tuesday evening. Although it was a long session it was thoroughly enjoyable; during the course of the evening I mentioned that the vision of our school is very much in line with the Gilbert Review. The fifth key point which underpins this review is that, ‘schools draw in parents/carers as their child’s co-educators.’ This was the essence of Tuesday evening; making explicit our approach to teaching and learning so as to ensure continuity and consistency when supporting your children at home. Thanks for showing such enthusiasm and for participating so willingly. As a new Head it was also a lovely opportunity to meet you.

We had an excellent discussion about handwriting and I thought that I would just reiterate the reasons for our whole school approach. At Reigate Parish the children have always been taught to join their handwriting in Year 2. We are now simply bringing our approach forward so that it happens as soon as the children enter Reception. I am mindful as a new Head that people do not view this as ‘change for the sake of change.’ There are several important reasons.

Cursive Handwriting at Reigate Parish Church School

Why choose cursive handwriting?

“Every adult will consider the formation they use to be the most comfortable for them…..this does not necessarily make it the most effective formation for children learning for the first time. Adults must bear in mind the need to develop a handwriting style that is clear, fluent, legible and fast for first time learners.”

The benefits of teaching cursive script are:

1.       It helps children’s writing to be clear, fluent, legible and fast.

2.       Having a lead in and out stroke avoids confusion about where to begin letter formation.

3.       It has proved beneficial for children with poor hand control and for dyslexic children.

4.       The pencil does not often need to be lifted from the page – this reinforces phonic and spelling patterns – especially children’s understanding of digraphs; children see 2 letters as one unit of sound. Eg. Sh – ou – t, instead of s-h-o-u-t. This has clearly been proved by research and from experience has demonstrated that it works.

5.       When children begin with ‘scribble’ (which is a totally natural developmental stage), cursive script builds on this ‘scribble’. In other words, cursive script follows on from what they do naturally when they first pick up a pencil.

6.       If they don’t join up immediately and just print, at some point they will have to undo what they have learnt when they start using cursive script.

7.       Cursive script is more in keeping with a child’s natural flow and will  become habit. Most interestingly, some children who had yet to master cursive in Year 2 were the quickest to pick it up when it was introduced illustrating it comes more naturally.

There will be concerns that this approach to handwriting is not adopted from Year 3 onwards. My response to these concerns is that as a school it is not our sole business to prepare children for their Junior school. Our aim is to ensure that our school approach to teaching and learning is appropriate for our children NOW. In fact, it might well be argued that this really will give your children a 'flying start' to their Key Stage 2 education. If the foundations are laid correctly children will 'enjoy and achieve' notwithstanding the approaches adopted later on in their schooling. Research indicates that this approach works.

Dave Cole