Handwriting

At Bushbury Lane Academy, our pupils from Reception to Year 6 take part in regular handwriting lessons each week. Our aim is for all children to develop a confident, legible and personal handwriting style. Across the school, our teachers utilise the Nelsons handwriting program to support the development of handwriting, this is a consistent approach to teaching letter size, formation and joins.

A handwriting lesson has four main parts:

Part 1 Focus- To start the lesson, pupils will be reminded of the 3 P’s (posture, pen hold and paper position.) The letter or letter join will then be introduce to the children.

Part 2 Practicing patterns- The teacher will model the pattern that the letter or letter join features to the pupils. They will then have the opportunity to practice the pattern associated with the lesson.

Part 3 Letter formation- After the teacher has explained and modelled the letter formation or letter join, pupils will then practise this for themselves.

Part 4 Word builder- Pupils will apply their understanding of their letter or letter join by practising to write words that feature it.