Follow Letter-join’s Lesson Planners for a whole school approach to handwriting
Each of the key stage requirements are met through Letter-join’s handwriting Lesson Planners, written by teachers and editors experienced in primary education.
The Lesson Planners provide resources and activities for regular handwriting practice, aligning with the DfE's Writing Framework 2025, which puts emphasis on explicit handwriting instruction and the development of transcription skills.
Letter-join facilitates the Framework’s aim for the progressive development of handwriting skills throughout the whole school. It starts with Early Years children learning to hold their pencil comfortably for writing through a range of fun activities that develop fine and gross motor skills and strength, in addition to handwriting instruction and practice.
All key stage requirements for handwriting are covered, ensuring that pupils achieve the necessary skills and fluency to meet expected standards throughout the school, as outlined in the Framework.
Suggestions for differentiation are included in each section in order that every child has the opportunity to master the relevant skills.
The Lesson Planners provide resources and activities for regular handwriting practice, aligning with the DfE's Writing Framework 2025, which puts emphasis on explicit handwriting instruction and the development of transcription skills.
Letter-join facilitates the Framework’s aim for the progressive development of handwriting skills throughout the whole school. It starts with Early Years children learning to hold their pencil comfortably for writing through a range of fun activities that develop fine and gross motor skills and strength, in addition to handwriting instruction and practice.
All key stage requirements for handwriting are covered, ensuring that pupils achieve the necessary skills and fluency to meet expected standards throughout the school, as outlined in the Framework.
Suggestions for differentiation are included in each section in order that every child has the opportunity to master the relevant skills.
Incorporating handwriting lessons into your timetable
The Writing Framework recommends daily handwriting practice, taught in small, progressive steps, focusing on legible letter formation and pencil grip, starting in reception and continuing through primary school.
A guide for the length and frequency of handwriting lessons when following Letter-join's Lesson Planners:
Early Years and Year 1: short lessons on a daily basis (10-15 minutes).
Year 2: three lessons per week (15-20 minutes).
Years 3 and 4: two lessons per week (20-30 minutes).
Years 5 and 6: more advanced handwriting techniques taught during two weekly lessons (30-40 minutes).
Each handwriting lesson has differentiation activities for pupils who require extra practice or an extra challenge.
A guide for the length and frequency of handwriting lessons when following Letter-join's Lesson Planners:
Early Years and Year 1: short lessons on a daily basis (10-15 minutes).
Year 2: three lessons per week (15-20 minutes).
Years 3 and 4: two lessons per week (20-30 minutes).
Years 5 and 6: more advanced handwriting techniques taught during two weekly lessons (30-40 minutes).
Each handwriting lesson has differentiation activities for pupils who require extra practice or an extra challenge.
Early Years
Pre-writing patterns and shapes can be challenging for young pupils, but Letter-join has all the resources needed to introduce joined handwriting to younger children.
Letter-join’s animations model pre-writing patterns with fun sounds that can be copied by air-writing or by tracing on IWBs and tablets.
This naturally leads on to practising with a pencil on printed worksheets and the introduction of real letters. Watching and copying the shapes of letters will enable pupils to learn to write simple words at this early stage.
Letter-join has the option to start teaching handwriting either using printed letters before moving on to joined handwriting, or to start teaching with joined or un-joined cursive letters right from the beginning.
Module 1 Print
For teaching handwriting starting with printed letters.
All of Letter-join's Early Years and Key Stage 1 resources are available with Print Plus, Letter-join's printed font. These include all animations and worksheets for lowercase letters and words, phonics activities and printouts, all online games and Lesson Planners.
Handwriting can be fun and using Letter-join can help reinforce handwriting with a variety of fresh activities. To support handwriting at school, pupils can also log in to Letter-join at home, accessing all the resources including the touch-screen activities on iPads and tablets.
Ready for the final round of handwriting challenges? When pupils master these they’ll be true handwriting champions!
All of Letter-join's Early Years and Key Stage 1 resources are available with Print Plus, Letter-join's printed font. These include all animations and worksheets for lowercase letters and words, phonics activities and printouts, all online games and Lesson Planners.
Module 1 Cursive
Covers pre-cursive patterns and continuous cursive, lower case letters with or without lead-in lines. It starts with Getting Ready for Handwriting: warm-up exercises, sitting position and tripod pencil grip. At the end of this module children should be able to form and join all lowercase letters.
KS1
Handwriting can be fun and using Letter-join can help reinforce handwriting with a variety of fresh activities. To support handwriting at school, pupils can also log in to Letter-join at home, accessing all the resources including the touch-screen activities on iPads and tablets.
KS1 is the time to introduce new letterforms (capital letters, numbers, the uses of printed letters and punctuation). Letter-join animates all of these to show the correct formation providing ready-made worksheets for labelling and form-filling using capital and printed letters.
Pupils should also be looking to produce neater handwriting with consistent spacing and letter sizes as well as developing ‘speedy handwriting’ which can be practised using Letter-join’s dictation exercises.
Module 2 Print to Cursive
Module 2 is for teaching how to write capital letters, printed letters, numbers and symbols alongside cursive handwriting using Letter-join’s on-line and printed resources. Children will practise their fine and gross motor skills with Letter-join’s warm up activities, learn how to sit correctly for handwriting using the tripod grip and will be introduced to the different letter families.
Module 2 Cursive
Children will increase the fluency and speed of their handwriting through regular practice, improving letter formation and orientation of letters. Worksheets include high frequency words, joining practice, dictation exercises and SPaG practice in readiness for KS1 SATs.
Module 3 Starting Cursive
Children are introduced to writing cursive letters and how to join them. They will have regular practice in letter formation and joining their handwriting.
Module 3 Cursive
Children increase the fluency and speed of their handwriting through regular practice, improving letter formation and orientation of letters. Worksheets include high frequency words, joining practice, dictation exercises and SPaG practice in readiness for KS1 SATs.
Ks2
Ready for the final round of handwriting challenges? When pupils master these they’ll be true handwriting champions!
Building on KS1 skills, pupils will be writing passages of text neatly and speedily, labelling diagrams using printed letters appropriately and filling in forms using legible writing.
Letter-join’s resources will help pupils acquire a feel for neatness and quality in their final handwritten work. The dictation resources will help to develop handwriting stamina when writing.
With the support of Letter-join, pupils will have covered all the criteria necessary by the end of Year 6 to reach the standards set out in the National Curriculum for handwriting.
Module 4: Year 3
The handwriting lessons in Module 4 are presented in sets of two lessons per week and are designed to improve legibility, consistency and quality of handwriting. It is targeted at Year 3 children in lower KS2 where pupils should be using joined handwriting throughout their independent writing.
The worksheets for this module cover a variety of curriculum topics: Dictation, double letters, number vocabulary, palindromes, tongue twisters, MFL (French and Spanish), onomatopoeia, simile, WOW words and spellings.
Module 5: Year 4
Module 5 focuses on using handwriting practice to support other subjects in the curriculum and, at the same time, builds on fluency and consistency. This module aims to promote meaningful links with other subjects such as English, maths, science, geography, French and Spanish. Making such links enables children to apply the skills they are learning in context and also provides depth to the curriculum. Learners will continue to develop legible handwriting through the regular practice offered in this module’s lessons.
Module 6: Year 5
Module 6 continues to build on combining fluent handwriting with other subjects across the curriculum. In this module, learners will have plenty of opportunity to develop the stamina and skills to write at length, with accurate spelling and punctuation. With Letter-join’s wide range of resources, they will be able to work towards producing consistently neat and well-presented handwriting in all curriculum subjects. By the end of this module, children should be producing cursive writing automatically, enabling them to focus on the content of their work rather than the process of writing.
Module 7: Year 6
The aim of Module 7 is to ensure that handwriting is neatly presented and clear in readiness for KS2 SATs and is the expected standard of handwriting for Year 6. Learners will consolidate the stamina and skills required to write at length, with accurate spelling and punctuation. They will develop more of a personal handwriting style as they write with automaticity and will learn to write at different speeds with different attention to neatness, depending on the task.
Promoting speedy, fluent writing continues to be a strong feature in Module 7. Challenging dictation exercises will refine pupils’ revising and checking skills as well as boosting their handwriting speed, stamina and fluency. A range of curriculum-based worksheets will give pupils the opportunity to practise writing at length.
By the end of this module, children should be able to adapt their handwriting for a range of tasks and purposes and to create different effects. They should be clear about what standard of handwriting is appropriate for a particular task, for example, quick notes, a final handwritten version, an un-joined style or capital letters. All of these writing styles are covered in this module.
KS2 Handwriting Recovery Programme
Letter-join’s Handwriting Recovery Programme is aimed at pupils in upper Key Stage 2 and above who require extra handwriting support. It includes teacher assessments, lesson plans, links to worksheets and online activities and suggestions for further practice.
Handwriting Assessment Tracker
Letter-join’s Handwriting Assessment Tracker Pack has been designed in line with National Curriculum targets for handwriting. It provides a complete scheme for assessing pupils’ progression in handwriting skills from Early Years to Year 6.
Inclusion
Letter-join is an excellent resource for teaching children with special educational needs, particularly dyslexia.
It delivers a multi-sensory approach to learning handwriting, which is fundamental when teaching dyslexic pupils. Letter-join's combination of interactive animations, games, activities and worksheets enables children to experience a range of visual, auditory, kinaesthetic and tactile factors of teaching and learning.
See our Dyslexia document >
See our Dyslexia document >
Letter-join’s Handwriting Recovery Programme offers a concise step-by-step intervention tailored to improve a specific skill in children whose handwriting is limited by difficulties with fine motor development, including left-handed children.
Adult learnersFurthermore, Letter-join provides a useful tool-kit for adult learners and students learning English as a foreign language.
