Write Rules – Making Handwriting Easy

Write Rules is the ultimate handwriting solution!  The complete two year programme (scheme of work) teaches children how to form and write their letters correctly.  It’s fun and engaging.  Best of all, it contains all of the resources teachers need to run the lessons.  All you need to provide are the children, pencils, paper, playdough and enthusiasm.  (You also need an internet connection and screen but we assume this is already in your classroom).  It also includes GriffinOT’s fine motor skills programme.

children following videos for write rules learn to write

Write Rules – Making Handwriting Easy

Write Rules is the ultimate handwriting solution!  The complete two year programme (scheme of work) teaches children how to form and write their letters correctly.  It’s fun and engaging.  Best of all, it contains all of the resources teachers need to run the lessons.  All you need to provide are the children, pencils, paper, playdough and enthusiasm.  (You also need an internet connection and screen but we assume this is already in your classroom).  It also includes GriffinOT’s fine motor skills programme.

Teaching Handwriting Made Easy

  • Kim knows that teachers need easy and quick lesson solutions for their classroom.

  • Write Rules is a complete resource you can use immediately with your class.

  • The Write Rules lesson plans are already written which saves time when planning.

  • Write rules includes lesson video resources and songs which are ready to play.

  • The programme includes differentiation for different levels.

  • Lessons develop children’s motor skills and pencil control.

  • Best of all, Write Rules is fun and engaging for the children!

girl colouring in crocodile snap picture jessie write rules

Join the Free Trial

If you would like to be one of the first schools to start using Write Rules, you can join the free trial here. The trial includes 10 weeks of the Write Rules resources.

Joining the free trial does not commit you to purchase, you don’t even need to register your card details.

The free trial does not include access to the training or the fine motor skills programme which comes with the paid package.

Individual teacher subscriptions are available, but it is highly recommended that Write Rules is used as a whole school approach.

What’s Included with the Write Rules Subscription?

Write Rules is designed to be used with children aged 4-6 to teach them printing.  It is designed to be used during the first two years of school.   It’s a whole package for supporting children with their fine motor skills and handwriting at school.  Once you join you have 12 months’ access to all of GriffinOT’s fine motor and handwriting resources including:

The entire Write Rules Programme (more information below)

Kim's fine motor training - 2.5 hours

GriffinOT's fine motor skill development programme - 160 activities

The supporting pencil grasp development programme

Our scissor skills programme

Example Write Rules Videos

Write Rules Songs

Dough Dance – Fine Motor Skills

Move with Jessie – Gross Motor Skills

Write Rules Stories

The Write Rules handwriting programme (scheme of work) includes:

  • 60 weeks of lesson plans – 30 weeks for each year

  • Weekly targets and learning objectives

  • Fine Motor Skills online training (2.5 hour course)

  • Our fine motor programme – 160+ activities

  • Progress monitoring sheets (but you can also use your own)

  • Animated songs which teach letter formations

  • Weekly fine motor activities

  • Dough Dance videos

  • Weekly whole body movement videos

  • All worksheets required

  • Question and answers section to ask Kim for guidance

  • Stories where Jessie and her friends help children to draw shapes and understand the rules of writing

  • Programme outline booklet and handwriting policy draft

You can join the free trial here  and test the programme today! There is no obligation to buy, the trial is completely free and includes the first 5 weeks of each level.  (It does not include access to the fine motor programme or training).

“My goal is to teach children how to avoid these errors at the beginning.  I want to help all children to understand the correct letter formations and patterns from the moment they pick up their pencil.  If they can get it right from the start, then they won’t need to unlearn incorrect patterns with the help of an occupational therapist.  At the end of the day, I would like to see far less referrals for poor handwriting.”  Kim Griffin

Write Rules Core Principles

Children should be taught printing first

In the UK, children are expected to start writing at four years of age.  At this age, they are not developmentally ready to draw (or even recognise) diagonal lines.   A joining/cursive first approach expects most children to work at a level that is beyond their age expectations.   It doubly disadvantages summer born children and those with any developmental delays or additional learning needs.  And in some cases it makes children’s first experiences of learning to write unenjoyable.  Kim has seen this lead to poor confidence and motivation to write as children become older.

Print first is also recommend by the UK DfE in their most updated phonics guidance (Note 3)

Children will be taught handwriting as a separate skill to phonics.

Handwriting is primarily a motor skill. It requires a completely different set of skills to phonics.  There has been such a focus on phonics in recent years that many schools don’t even have a separate handwriting lesson scheduled.  Kim firmly believes that allocating time to handwriting in the yearly years creates solid foundations for children as they progress through school.  Explicit teaching of handwriting is also recommended by the National Handwriting Association.

Children will be taught letters in formation patterns, or families.

As handwriting is a motor skill, teaching in formation patterns/letter families makes much more sense. It allows children to reinforce the pencil movements to make letters that are similar to each other.  It also means that the easier letters are learnt first (e.g. ‘l’).  When using phonics order to teacher letters, children have to learn different movement patterns at the same time.  This can be confusing.  Also, in many phonics programmes ‘s’ is the first letter. ‘S’ is one of the hardest letters to draw.  Kim explores why teaching in letter families is important further in this article Letter formation families – the ONLY way to teach handwriting.

Why we do it this way?

After many years supporting children with poor handwriting skills, Kim identified three common characteristics in children who struggle with their writing.  The first was they often started their letters in the incorrect position.  This can reduce writing fluency and add to letter orientation confusion.

Secondly, they frequently segmented their letters.  Segmentation means that draw letters in parts, rather than in one continuous motion.  For example, they might draw they body of an ‘r’ then go back and add the little bit on the top left.  This also reduces writing fluency and speed.  It can sometimes make writing difficult to read.

Finally, children often had very poor sizing and placement of letters on the line.  So, their ‘j’ might sit up on the line rather than go underneath it.  Or, their ‘s’ and their ‘h’ might be the same size and often they would omit spaces between words.  These errors make writing more difficult to read in the long term.

Kim has created the Write Rules programme to help teachers teach handwriting correctly at the start.

Write Rules Pricing – Annual Subscription

It is highly recommended that Write Rules is used as a whole school approach.  It is available for purchase for individual teachers or for whole schools.  The pricing includes 12 months’ access to all content.  This includes the teacher training videos, songs, stories and games.  The subscription will need to be renewed annually to provide continued access to video content.

You can join the free trial to test the first five weeks of each stage (10 lessons).  The paid subscriptions include 60 lessons, which designed to be taught over two years.  It also includes access to all the content in our fine motor skills programme, and specific pencil grasp and scissor skills programmes.

You will receive access within 1 hour of payment via email.  If you have planned to start the training on a specific day, it is highly recommended you purchase and activate the training a couple of days in advance to ensure you definitely have access on the day.