innovatED Magazine - Issue 4 - Spring 2020

Jo Ware, Vice Principal, Plymouth UTC
UTCs are all about technology – so why does Plymouth
UTC have such a strong focus on handwriting?
Presentation matters. This is one of the first things young
people learn when they join us at UTC Plymouth. We also
expect them to step up and learn the conventions of
operating in a workplace, from shaking hands to
expressing themselves clearly, both orally and in writing.
Despite daily use of Chromebooks and other technology,
we encourage all our students to improve their
handwriting as they will need it for exams, filling in forms
and for workplace note taking.
I have heard it claimed that boys' handwriting is worse
than girls, but this has not been the experience in our
college. However, when students join us from
mainstream schools in year nine, their handwriting can
look childish. We want them take pride in their work.
Word processed text has that neat, uniform appearance
but it is impersonal and not always appropriate. What we
don’t want is young people letting themselves down with
ill formed letters and illegible work.
Here are our five top tips for improving handwriting:
Give them the tools. We buy in special handwriting
pens and have gathered together materials based on
a variety of resources. However, one of the most
successful interventions has been gel and glitter
pens. They have amazing colours, feel special and
the students enjoy using them. Recently they have
used them for work in the maths department and
lecturers cannot believe the difference in
presentation.
Display and celebrate. Professor John Hattie's
Principles of Visible Learning inform much of our
work at the UTC and we are always looking for
opportunities to help students demonstrate their
progress to themselves, to their peers, and to the
teacher. We have what we call WAGOLL boards
(What A Good One Looks Like) where we collect
pictures of their very best work and students are
proud put forward pieces of their work to be
photographed.
Revisit regularly. Our new year nine intake have
made great strides with their handwriting and so we
will be showing some of their 'before and after' work
to year elevens, just to let them know they will have
to up their game before the exams! •
Presentation Matters
Give them a reason to improve. We make it clear that
good handwriting is part of being an adult. They are
moving on from being a pupil in a secondary school to
being a young employee in a workplace and their
image will be affected if they have a childish scrawl.
'The future will thank you for this'. We focus on
metacognition in the college and encourage children
to be more organised. It is much easier to revise and
learn from beautifully presented notes that are well
structured and easy to read. This is an investment in
their future.
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