Very Small School Handwriting Scheme
Very Small School Scheme (4 - 11 year olds) - £425 + VAT
This Scheme has been adapted for very small schools with less than 50 pupils aged 4 to 11 years old.
It takes a holistic view of teaching handwriting, developing both a child’s Key Strengths (Gross & Fine Motor Skills) and Key Abilities (Knowledge) from Foundation Stage through to the end of Key Stage 2. It’s systematic, differentiated and progressive approach supports children of all ability levels.
A choice of teaching routes
Due to the unique nature of how teachers have to approach planning and teaching in a very small school (less than 50 pupils) the scheme offers two Teaching Routes:
Route C
To first teach pre-handwriting patterns; then a single letter cursive font style in letter families; next the entry stokes for joining letters in join types; then joining the letters.
Route D
To first teach pre-handwriting patterns; then a single letter continuous cursive font style in letter families; then joining the letters.
Unlike the full scheme you only get the timetables for the Route you choose.
A choice of letter versions
Most of the letters within our cursive and continuous cursive font are of a standard style however we do offer two letter versions for the letters w, x and z.
Cursive Letter Versions
Version 1
Version 2
Version 3
Version 4
Continuous Cursive Letter Versions
Version 1
Version 2
Version 3
Version 4
Because our single letters are taught in letter families we need to know which version you want to use as this dictates which of our prompt cards, word lists, worksheets, desktop crib sheets and alphabet friezes we send you and the animations appearing on your school channel.
Very Small School Scheme (4 - 11 year olds)
Our Very Small Primary School Scheme develops and refines handwriting skills by:
- Building the gross and refining fine motor skills through structured games, activities and exercises.
- Building the spatial awareness, visual and motor memory skills needed through non-pencil and pencil activities.
- Supporting the children through the developmental pencil grip stages; including hand dominance identification, so that they can comfortably hold the pencil in a tripod pencil grip.
- Developing the children’s ability to correctly push and pull the pencil to be able to form letters correctly, firstly through pre-handwriting patterns and then single letter formation.
- Developing and reinforcing the correct sitting position and teaching the correct position, tilt and movement of the writing paper.
- Refining the handwriting letter size and teaching the joining of letters to form words.
- Building speed and fluidity using dictation activities and sentences.
Very Small Primary School Teaching Pack contents
- Very Small School Teaching Manual
- Prompt Cards
- Memory stick containing worksheets, desktop crib sheets, alphabet friezes and lesson posters
- Your own school animation channel (hosted on Vimeo)
- Teaching Manual school photocopy licence
Very Small School Teaching Manual
The Very Small School Teaching Manual has been designed to teach handwriting in four distinct stages:
- Getting Ready for Handwriting Stage 1 – Pre-handwriting Patterns
- Learning to Handwrite Stage 2 – Single Letter Formation
- Learning to Handwrite Stage 3 – Joined Handwriting
- Speed and fluidity are then taught through a range of dictation sentences and activities.
Each stage is covered by a set of progressive 6 week half-termly timetables for the Teaching Route chosen. This caters for the greater flexibility and differentiation required in a very small school setting.
There are additional timetables for Key Stage 1 & 2 aged pupils that cover PE warm up and cool down activities to further support gross and fine motor skills development.
The lessons have been differentiated and so you choose which lesson level to teach your children.
Detailed, colour coded, lesson plans have been designed to be accessible to all educators and provide:
- lesson aims,
- learning objectives,
- resource list,
- lesson instructions, and
- plenaries (round up).
Fully differentiated lesson plans cover:
- Gross and fine motor skills games and activities.
- Non-pencil lessons teaching pre-handwriting patterns and letters.
- Sitting correctly.
- Hand dominance development.
- Pencil grip development.
- Paper and pencil lessons teaching pre-handwriting patterns and letters.
- Paper position and tilt.
- Letter joining.
- Dictation to build speed and fluidity.
Other Teaching Manual contents
- Assessment sheets covering:
- Physical abilities.
- Pencil grip.
- Single letter formation.
- Letter joins.
- Physical abilities intervention programs.
- Word lists for high frequency words and letter join type.
- Sentence starter ideas to support capital letter usage.
- Differentiated dictation sentences.
Prompt Cards (A4 laminated)
Our Prompt Cards support the development of both visual and motor memory skills and also build the knowledge of letter position and placement.
The picture clues used on the Prompt Cards are carried forward to the worksheets.
In your pack you get:
- 58 Pre-handwriting pattern cards
- 26 Capital letter cards
- 26 Lower-case letter cards
- 10 Number cards
USB Memory stick
On your USB stick there are over 1,000 worksheets that progress from large lined picture clue worksheets through to normal handwriting lined worksheets with colour prompts at the start of the line. You choose the correct worksheet for the children and only print what you need.
The posters you need for the lessons are also included together with desktop letter crib sheets and alphabet friezes.
The worksheet development level is identified by a colour and shape.
You get on your USB stick:
- 3 levels for pre-handwriting patterns
- 7 levels for capital letters
- 9 levels for lower-case letters
- 7 levels for joining letters
- 9 levels for numbers
- 6 levels for symbols
- 9 levels of blank worksheets
School Animation Channel
Your animation channel just hosts the videos for your chosen Teaching Route and Letter Version, supporting a whole school approach to teaching handwriting.
In addition to the free animations on our website your channel has an animation to support every one of the Scheme worksheets.
There are also additional animations to support some of the lessons.
School Photocopy Licence
As part of the Scheme the school is allowed to photocopy (not digitally copy), for its use only, from the Teaching Manual.