Our school uses a cursive (joined) writing scheme. This style of writing is taught from the onset and it is envisaged that this writing style will continue throughout their primary school years at Citywest & Saggart CNS. Some schools begin with a print style of writing and move to a cursive scheme mid way through the primary years. It makes more sense that children begin writing with a writing scheme that will not have to be changed later on in their schooling. According to research*, there are many advantages of using a cursive style.
- It assists left to right movement through each word.
- Concept of separate word is acquired.
- There is scope for revising patterns in pre-writing and directly associating them with correct letter formations.
- It helps to prevent the interspersing of capital letters among lower case letters.
- It helps letter formation since the ligatures lead naturally into the correct starting point.
- It helps to prevent confusion between letters, e.g. b and d.
- The joining stroke makes a natural space between two letters.
- It should ultimately improve fluency and speed of the child’s writing and therefore help spelling.
(* Mehigan, G., 1988, Right is Right, but Left is Right Too)
Lower Case Cursive Letters (small letters)
Group 1 – s, a, t, i, p, n
Group 2 – c, k, e, h, r, m, d
Group 3 – g, o, u, l, f, b
Upper Case Cursive Letters (capital letters)
Group 1 – G, O, Qu, A, D
Group 2 – N, M, P, B, R, K
Group 3 – U, Y, V, W
