How it works
- Type your text, one word or sentence per line.
- Choose print, pre-cursive or joined, and the line size for your year group.
- Pick the rows: trace then write, trace only, or copy from a model.
- Download the A4 PDF. Longer lists carry on over as many pages as they need.
From pre-cursive to joined
In Year 1 children learn to form lower-case letters starting and finishing in the right place. In Year 2 the national curriculum expects them to start using the diagonal and horizontal strokes that join letters. Pre-cursive sheets build the letter shapes with their lead-out flicks; joined sheets show how those flicks become the joins.
Ideas for your own text
This week’s spellings
Practising spellings in joined handwriting links letter patterns with spelling. For the full set of spelling activities, use the spelling worksheet maker.
A sentence a day
One sentence traced on Monday, traced and written mid-week and copied on Friday makes a short daily handwriting routine.
Curriculum links in England
- Year 1Letters are started and finished in the right place and practised in families of letters formed the same way.
- Year 2Pupils start using some diagonal and horizontal joining strokes and learn which letters are best left unjoined.
- Years 3–4Joins are used across their writing, and handwriting grows more legible, consistent and well presented.
- Years 5–6Pupils write with increasing speed, choosing letter shapes and whether to join particular letters.
DfE guidance has moved towards print first. The reading framework asks for correct start and exit points without lead-in strokes in Reception, and the 2025 writing framework says joined handwriting shouldn’t be taught until print letters are formed correctly and consistently, with no expectation of lead-ins.
Some schools still teach a pre-cursive or cursive style from the start. The framework accepts this but suggests those pupils also learn unjoined print for jobs like labelling a diagram or writing an email address, which the Print option here covers.
Summarised in our own words from the National Curriculum in England: English programmes of study, and the DfE reading framework and writing framework.
