This page is for UK families. US parents search cursive. That is a different job.
Cursive is the school word
If the homework diary says cursive, it almost always means joined up writing. You do not need the fully-joined versus partly-joined argument at the kitchen table. Look at the book. Copy those joins. Leave the label alone.
Lead-ins, the little climb from the line into the letter, are a school choice. Some schemes use them. Some do not. Match what is in the book bag. Do not add them from a download.
Joins sit on top of letters that already work
A Year 1 book full of joined letters is not proof that your child is behind if theirs are still separate.
The Department for Education’s Writing framework (July 2025) is blunter than the curriculum:
Joined handwriting should not be taught until pupils can form these unjoined letters (print forms) correctly and consistently.
There is no expectation that schools teach lead-ins for joined handwriting from the start and the national curriculum does not require this, but some schools continue to do this.
Source: The writing framework (PDF), Department for Education, July 2025. Pulled from the official PDF on 27 August 2026.
Some schools still begin joining in Reception. That is a school choice, not a national rule. If letters still wobble, or start in the wrong place, extra joining practice will bake the wobble in. Match the school’s style. Do not race their timeline.
How to tell if this child is ready
Look at your book, not the other child’s.
Ready to begin some joins usually looks like this. Most lower-case letters start in the right place, even if they are not pretty. Letters sit on the line more often than they float. Size is roughly even in a short word. The child can write a short word without inventing each letter.
Too early usually looks like this. Letters that look all right when finished but started in the wrong place. You cannot always see this on paper. Joins that collapse three letters later. A child who copies a joined model slowly, then reverts to print the moment they think about the word. Tired or refusing after a few lines.
Neatness is the wrong test. A page can look tidy and still be built the wrong way round. Joining on top of that does not fix it.
What to do at home this week
If the school has not started joining yet, do not teach a joined style from the internet. Practise the unjoined letters they actually send home. Ten minutes, one target, then stop.
If the school has started joining and the letters are not secure, go back to the single letters the school uses: same style, not a different font. Short words, not sentences. You are not contradicting the school. You are making the joins possible.
If the letters are secure and joins have started, practise the same joins the book uses. Ask which letters the school leaves unjoined. Schemes disagree.
A three-minute way to stop guessing
On paper you see the finished letter. You do not see where the pen started.
Penwick is a free three-minute assessment on an iPad or Android tablet. No account. No email. No date of birth. Your child writes five short tasks. The report is teacher-style, levels not marks: SECURE, GROWING, EMERGING or FIRST TARGET. Never a score out of ten. Never something to show a seven-year-old as a grade. Settings lists what leaves the device. Each item is switchable. Stroke data can go to s.penwick.app with a random research id. The useful output is the first target. If that target is start points, or sitting on the line, joined up writing is too early until that target moves. Start the free assessment.