Teachers call for greater focus on tidying up poor handwriti

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debbie
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Teachers call for greater focus on tidying up poor handwriti

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I concur with the observations about poor 'pencil grip' and poor handwriting - endemic across many schools:

https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/br ... andwriting
Surrey teacher Penny Goddin, who presented a motion calling for a survey into current standards of handwriting, said that very few pupils were reaching the end of primary-school education with the classic "tripod" grip, which involves using the index finger for stabilising, and the thumb and middle finger for mobility.

Ms Goddin added: "Children who have difficulty writing are often poorly understood. I wonder how many children have already suffered the consequences of bad handwriting – how many have been labelled underachievers when they simply needed help holding their pencils?

"How many have we failed by allowing them to develop the wrong techniques? What is happening in the classroom today has vast implications. A third of children are leaving primary school without the required standard of handwriting."
I applaud the idea of a national survey to draw attention to pencil grip and handwriting.

Not only are many children not holding their pencils with the classic 'tripod grip', neither are their teachers.

Also, commonly seen 'grips' are bordering on grotesque.

Then there needs to be an analysis of why this might be.

I suggest we have a generation of adults who were not formally taught well enough - and then we have over-use of mini whiteboards and whiteboard pens and poor posture and seating habits from 'grouped' tables.

Then, we have overuse of interactive whiteboards which diminishes the chances of high-quality modelled handwriting.

Do any teacher-training establishments train (or train well enough) in the teaching of handwriting?

Add to that, over-marking whereby it is too challenging for teachers to mark in the school handwriting - so any idiosyncratic handwriting will do (but I would argue that this is not satisfactory).
Debbie Hepplewhite
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