Carlton Hill Primary School

At Carlton Hill, we teach handwriting through the scheme, PenPals. Our aim is that children are confident in their handwriting ability so that they can focus on the content of their writing across the curriculum. We teach weekly handwriting lessons up to Year 4. In KS1 we aim to teach more than one handwriting lesson per week. In Year 5 and 6 we run handwriting interventions for those that need it. 

Joining letters starts in Year 2. 

To ensure consistency with the formation of letters at both home and school, please see the videos below. 

At school, the letters are taught according to their stroke pattern. E.g. to write an 'a', first you copy the stroke pattern of a 'c' but join them up with an added flick. The children will understand this as 'letter families' (see below poster). The videos show each letter family formation.

Please see the handwriting families we use at school in the attached poster.