The rationale behind

Penpals for
Handwriting

Rationale
Handwriting should be actively taught
A flexible, fluent and legible
handwriting style empowers children
to write with confidence and creativity
Associating handwriting movement
with visual letter patterns and aural
phonemes will help children learn to
spell

A practical approach
Time: A focus on whole-class teaching, with key
teaching points clearly identified, allows effective
teaching in the time available
Planning: Help with long-, medium- and shortterm planning
Practice: Practice Books for independent writing
Revision: Opportunities for record-keeping,
review and assessment
Motivation: Written with the support of
handwriting experts to stimulate and motivate
children.
ICT: CD-ROMs enrich and extend childrens
handwriting experiences.

Five developmental
phases

1. Readiness for handwriting; gross and fine

motor skills leading to letter formation
(Foundation / 35 years)
2. Beginning to join (Key Stage 1 / 57 years)
3. Securing the joins (Key Stage 1 and lower
Key Stage 2 / 59 years)
4. Practising speed and fluency (lower Key
Stage 2 / 79 years)
5. Presentation skills (upper Key Stage 2 / 10
11 years)

Why other schools use

Penpals

A fluent, legible style

Progression from 3-11yrs
5 clear developmental stages
Sensible links for application
Interactive and multisensory
Easy to use
Delivers results

The components
Foundation 1 (ages 3-5)
to
Years 5/6 (ages 9-11)

Components
Teachers Books for each year group
Reception to Y5/6

Components
Practice Books for Independent
writing
Handwriting patterns
Phonic and spelling
support
Consolidation of high
frequency words

Components
Big Books for whole-class
or group teaching by a TA
Write-on, wipe-off

Components
CD-ROMs for whole-class teaching
Posture advice
Warm-up clips for gross and
fine motor skills
Skywriting
Animated letters and joins

CDs: posture and pencil grip advice

CDs: warm-ups for gross and fine motor skills

A progression of units for each letter and join

A note on Foundation
1

Book and CD-ROM cover essential pre-skills to

precede any handwriting scheme
Mark-making and Creativity
Talkabouts for Circle Time
Play-based learning
Supports children working within Phases 1 and 2 of
Letters and Sounds
Penpals Foundation 1 should continue to be used
throughout the Foundation Stage as children will
continue to benefit from the activities even after
they have begun working with the Penpals
Foundation 2 resources.

F1 Talk Abouts for speaking

and listening skills

F1 fun Try Its for the whiteboard

A note on Years 5 and

6

The components for Years 5/6 work

differently:
A crash course in the basics for everyone
ahead of SATs
A resource for focusing on specific issues in
small groups

Book has presentation projects,

assessment and practice sessions
CD-ROM split into Basic and
Presentation

Y5/6 basic screens common errors,

and writing quickly and fluently

Y5/6 presentation screens choosing

an appropriate lettering style

Classroom organisation
and timing

Classroom
organisation

Arrange tables so that all children

can see the interactive whiteboard
Each child needs:
dry-wipe board (preferably with
guidelines) and a marker pen, or
pencil and paper

Handwriting is usually done on a

horizontal or slightly sloped surface

Timing
Little and often is the most effective
approach
The whole-class session for each unit
(including warm-up): 15 minutes
The independent session:1520 minutes.
Extra daily practice times of 510 minutes
are ideal. Use these to:
practise the high-frequency words
extend their pattern practice
revisit the letter pattern shown in the Practice Book

Home-school links

Home-school links
A take-home information sheet is
provided for parents in each
Teachers Book

Differentiation

Differentiation
Children working individually with a Teaching
Assistant may benefit from additional practice on
dry-wipe boards.
Take away activities provide excellent
opportunities for differentiation as detailed above.
Cross-references to similar Take aways in earlier
books can help you to select less challenging
activities for those who need extra practice at a
lower level.
Higher-achieving children can be challenged by
higher expectations of control and evenness of
letters.

Assessment and
record-keeping

Formative assessment
On-going assessment gives you the chance
to spot any errors or inconsistencies that
are likely to impede a fast, fluent hand in
the future.
Be especially aware of left-handers and
their pencil hold
The Practice Book page annotations in the
Teachers Book enable you to draw the
childrens attention to key handwriting
issues.

Summative
assessment

Beginning of year: The upper

primary books provide a startingpoint assessment PCM
End of year: Use text from the final
unit in each book

Handwriting issues

Links to spelling
Learning to associate the kinaesthetic
handwriting movement with the visual
letter pattern and the aural phonemes will
help children with learning to spell
A spelling/vocabulary link is identified at
the start of each unit
Foundation 1 links to phases 1 and 2 of
Letters and Sounds
Penpals units can be reorganised to
support Jolly Phonics

Font
The font used for Penpals is Sassoon
Cambridge Joiner
Intended as a model, but variety is
natural!
The Show Alphabet section on the CDROM has animations of all letters
Also see the Teachers Book introduction
for clarification on individual letters

The Show Alphabet

screen

Variations in font size

The following screens shows
variations in font size throughout the
scheme see also page 16

Variations in font size

Variations in font size

Joins and break letters

Use the Show joining letter sets
section on the CD-ROM, or an OHT of
the inside back cover of this book, to
demonstrate the joining letter sets
and the break letters.

The two basic join

types

Diagonal join (e.g.

): this is the
most common join. It starts from the
final flick on the baseline (or curl in
the case of the letter ).
Letters that come before a diagonal
join are:
(and in which the flick begins below
the baseline).

The two basic join

types

Horizontal join (e.g.

) : this join is
formed from letters that finish at the
top of the letter rather than at the
baseline.
Letters that come before a horizontal
join are:

Progression in joining
Y1/P2

Only 2 or 3 letters in a word are

joined.
The words on the CD-ROM and in the
Big Book and the Practice Book
feature the focus join for the teaching
unit.

Y2/P3

Children also practise familiar joins

which are not the focus of a unit.
Children are expected to begin to join
all the letters in a short word, or to
join letter patterns which can support

Progression in joining
Y3/4
P5/6

All the basic joins will now be familiar.

Children practise tricky joins and
begin to develop fluent, even
handwriting.
An emphasis on spacing between
letters and words, consistency of
letter size, and parallel ascenders and
descenders helps children to present
their work well.

Writing on lined paper

Children should be encouraged to write on lined
paper
As children progress, the width between the
lines should decrease
The font size in the Practice Books is intended
to reflect a development in handwriting
A photocopiable sheet with lines of a suitable
width is provided in the Teachers Books.
Some children may prefer paper with guidelines
for the height of ascenders and descenders.

Pencil hold
The most important thing is comfort and
a hold that will be efficient under speed
The traditional pencil hold allows
children to sustain handwriting for long
periods, but there are many alternative
pencil holds (particularly for lefthanders)
Some children may benefit from
triangular pencils or ordinary pencils
with plastic pencil grips.

Pencil hold
Use the pencil hold videos in the
Posture clips section on the CDROMs to illustrate good pencil hold.

Posture
A good posture and pencil hold are
vital for good handwriting.
Discourage sitting on one foot,
kneeling or wrapping their feet
around the legs of the chair!
The images in the
Posture clips area
on the CD-ROMs
illustrate good posture.

Left-handed children
There is no reason why left-handed
childrens handwriting should be any
worse than that of right-handed
children
Left-handed children should not sit to
the right of right-handed children as
their papers will meet in the middle!

Left-handed children
Left-handed children should be taught
to position their paper to the left of
centre and then angle the paper for
comfort
Use the left-handed pencil hold video
and posture photograph in
the Posture clips area
on the CD-ROM to
illustrate this.

Sloped surfaces
Children who experience some motor
control difficulties often benefit from
writing on a slight slope
Ring-binders are the easiest and
cheapest way to provide a slope
Commercial wooden or plastic writing
slopes are also widely available

Angle of paper
Guidelines in the Teachers Books
illustrate good positions for right- or
left-handed children
You may laminate these onto A3 to
make table-top mats.
Encourage the children to explore
personal variation of the angles.

Thanks and questions!