At St Catherine's, we believe in the importance of making handwriting automatic so that all the focus of the brain can be on writing content.

We follow the Kinetic Letters programme to develop the required physical skills for handwriting. From EYFS, every opportunity is taken to develop the required body strength to enable pupils to develop effective and sustained handwriting techniques, whether that be in the classroom, in PE lessons or when moving through the school.

We teach our pupils how to pick up and hold the pencil in a specific way, consistent across the school. See video guides at the bottom of this page for more details.

Pupils are taught letter formation through their phonics lessons as part of the Essential Letters and Sounds scheme. They are taught specific rhymes to help them remember the correct formation. We precede each rhyme with 'in we go' and end with 'and out', to support pupils to remember the lead-in and lead-out lines used in pre-cursive. Click the image below to download the Handwriting Rhymes document.

From Year 2, pupils are taught to join letters when writing. The focus on pre-cursive up to this point makes this move to cursive a smooth one. Pupils are taught two different types of join, the 'washing line' join and the 'arm join'.

Pencil Pick-up

Pencil Hold Check

Pencil Workout