Why handwriting still matters

I work in learning support at a prep school in the South-East and have started teaching my pupils handwriting. It seems that the future of education, especially for children with special needs, is digital. But why should those who struggle to write legibly be given a laptop instead of extra lessons in handwriting? Faced with the obvious decline in the quality of handwriting, what are teachers to do?

When in doubt, consult the English national curriculum. The handwriting curriculum for Key Stage 2 (aged eight to ten) is divided into three levels: working ‘towards expected standards’, working ‘at expected standards’ and working ‘at greater depth’. Students at the first level ‘work towards’ the following skills: writing for a range of purposes, using paragraphs to organise ideas, utilising correct punctuation and capitalisation, narrating in descriptive language, spelling correctly ‘most words’ in their year group’s range and writing legibly. ‘Working at’ means they can actually do the things listed.