Cursive Writing

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