1. INSET introduction
The Penpals for Handwriting Teacher’s Books contain suggestions for running an INSET session
You can use this PowerPoint presentation to lead the session
Please feel free to adapt the presentation to the needs of your team
Penpals questions can be answered by Cambridge-Hitachi. See
Version 1.0, 22 October 2010

2. The rationale behind Penpals for Handwriting

3. 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

4. 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 short-term 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 children’s handwriting experiences.

5. Five developmental phases
Readiness for handwriting; gross and fine motor skills leading to letter formation (Foundation / 3–5 years)
Beginning to join (Key Stage 1 / 5–7 years)
Securing the joins (Key Stage 1 and lower Key Stage 2 / 5–9 years)
Practising speed and fluency (lower Key Stage 2 / 7–9 years)
Presentation skills (upper Key Stage 2 / 10–11 years)

6. 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

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

8. Components
Teacher’s Books for each year group
Reception to Y5/6

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

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

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

12. CDs: posture and pencil grip advice

13. CDs: warm-ups for gross and fine motor skills

14. A progression of units for each letter and join

15. 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.

16. F1 Talk Abouts for speaking and listening skills

17. F1 fun ‘Try Its’ for the whiteboard

18. 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

19. Y5/6 basic screens –common errors, and writing quickly and fluently

20. Y5/6 presentation screens – choosing an appropriate lettering style

21. Classroom organisation and timing

22. 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

23. Timing ‘Little and often’ is the most effective approach
The whole-class session for each unit (including warm-up): 15 minutes
The independent session:15–20 minutes.
Extra daily ‘practice times’ of 5–10 minutes are ideal. Use these to:
practise the high-frequency words
extend their pattern practice
revisit the letter pattern shown in the Practice Book

24. Home-school links

25. Home-school links
A take-home information sheet is provided for parents in each Teacher’s Book

26. Differentiation

27. 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.

28. Assessment and record-keeping

29. 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 Teacher’s Book enable you to draw the children’s attention to key handwriting issues.

30. Summative assessment
Beginning of year: The upper primary books provide a starting-point assessment PCM
End of year: Use text from the final unit in each book

32. Handwriting issues

33. 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

34. Font The font used for Penpals is Sassoon Cambridge Joiner
Intended as a model, but variety is natural!
The Show Alphabet section on the CD-ROM has animations of all letters
Also see the Teacher’s Book introduction for clarification on individual letters

35. The Show Alphabet screen

36. Variations in font size
The following screens shows variations in font size throughout the scheme – see also page 16

37. Variations in font size

38. Variations in font size

39. 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.

40. 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).

41. 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:

42. 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 spelling.

43. 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.

44. 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 Teacher’s Books.
Some children may prefer paper with guidelines for the height of ascenders and descenders.

45. 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 left-handers)
Some children may benefit from triangular pencils or ordinary pencils with plastic pencil grips.

46. Pencil hold
Use the pencil hold videos in the Posture clips section on the CD-ROMs to illustrate good pencil hold.

47. 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.

48. Left-handed children
There is no reason why left-handed children’s 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!

49. 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.

50. 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

51. Angle of paper
Guidelines in the Teacher’s 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.

52. Thanks and questions!