This observation morning is designed for teachers, leaders, and early years practitioners who want to strengthen handwriting provision within Reception. 

Participants will observe a range of teaching and wider provision within Reception classrooms in order to explore the interrelated elements of handwriting teaching and opportunities for practice. Observations will be facilitated by an early writing specialist, who will support attendees in reflecting on curriculum design, lesson structure, and the progression – in relation to phonics, communication, language and literacy.  Question and answer sessions will explore how fine motor and gross motor development are supported through targeted interventions, continuous provision and across the wider curriculum

The course will include these elements:

✏️ Observations of Reception practice, including explicit handwriting instruction – through discrete daily instruction, application within the phonics lesson, and and through guided groups.
✏️ Understanding how handwriting instruction is sequenced alongside phonics, ensuring that letter formation is explicitly taught and practised once graphemes have been introduced.

Participants will also receive a range of practical resources to support implementation within their own setting:

✏️ Exemplar slide deck handwriting teaching materials for Reception.
✏️ Curriculum progression documents outlining the sequence of pre-writing skills and letter formation within Reception.
✏️ Staff guidance documents to support consistent teaching approaches.
✏️ Narration scaffolds and modelling prompts to support explicit instruction.
✏️ Example practice materials and scaffolds that support pupils moving from tracing to independent formation.

Time will be provided for discussion and Q&A to reflect on the observations and explore how practice and curriculum design could be adapted within participants’ own settings.