Due to the General Election. All e-petitions were cancelled, including this one.

Alongside Sue Smits of Morrells Handwriting, who has raised this petition, we heartily agree with the contents, particularly as it includes a section on left-handed children in the last paragraph. If you are willing, please sign it via the following link:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/185568

The petition is as follows:

“Ban the testing of joined up handwriting in primary school SAT’s.

Year 2 children need to be ‘using the diagonal and horizontal strokes needed to join letters in most of their writing’ to achieve the Greater Depth Standard in the SAT’s tests.

As handwriting experts, Morrells Handwriting disagrees with this handwriting statement in the Interim Teacher Assessment Framework, which contradicts the handwriting statements in the current National Curriculum. Testing joined up handwriting puts schools under pressure to cut corners and rush children into joining up their handwriting before they are ready, causing an epidemic of illegible handwriting in our secondary schools.

There is no long term benefit of rushing a child to join up their handwriting; it is simply to tick the boxes of the handwriting statements. We believe that children should not be tested on joined up handwriting, but taught on ability with the focus on legibility. Likewise, it should be a statutory requirement that left handed pupils receive specific teaching to meet their needs, to help them master legible handwriting and continue to love writing”.

Thank you!