We have written letters to all the members of the House of Commons “Education Select Committee”, pointing out the following:
- The DFE has NO figures on how many children are Left-handed.
(Probably the largest minority in school population, maybe over 1 million!)
- The DFE has NO idea whether being left-handed has an impact on likely educational achievement. (The above are answers to parliamentary questions!)
- In the National Curriculum, there is a section on Handwriting which is statutory, where for left-handed children it is NON-statutory. Equal opportunity? I would argue that left-handers need more help with their handwriting than right-handers. The left-handed child needs to be shown a different writing technique to the right-handed child otherwise they will smudge their writing, have difficulty seeing where one word ends and the next should begin as well as having problems copying work.
- Nick Gibb MP (Minister for School Standards) recommended we have input into the new Initial Teacher Training Curriculum last year, which we did. However, when published there was NO mention of left-handed children.
We are awaiting a response from the Committee Chair, Robert Halfon MP.
