End of Year 2 Expectations
Year 2
In Year 2, children continue to develop their handwriting skills by learning to join letters, which helps improve the flow and fluency of their writing. The focus shifts from letter formation to introducing diagonal and horizontal strokes that connect letters while maintaining legibility. At this stage, children are expected to:
- Write using a legible and fluent style that begins to include joined letters.
- Maintain consistent spacing between words, ensuring it reflects the size of their letters.
- Ensure that descender letters, such as ‘f’ and ‘g’, are correctly formed with loops and sit neatly on the line with their tails extending below.
- Work on improving letter size consistency, though slight inconsistencies are acceptable as children learn to join.
To meet the Teacher Assessment Framework (TAF) standards for writing at the end of Key Stage 1, children must produce handwriting that meets specific expectations, including:
- Correctly forming capital letters, lower-case letters, and digits.
- Using spaces effectively between words.
- Beginning to join letters while maintaining clarity and control.
In this example, we can see how the child has progressed from Year 1. They are starting to join some letters, such as ‘f’ and ‘g’, which are clearly discernible with loops. While letter sizing may still be inconsistent as the child adapts to joining, this level of handwriting is appropriate for achieving the expected standard in writing by the end of Year 2.
Developing neat, legible, and fluent handwriting is an important component of the Year 2 writing curriculum, and we encourage regular practice both at school and at home to help children meet these expectations.