[senco-forum] Handwriting

Dear All
  I do agree that we should allow pupils to wordprocess their work if they want to - but there are difficulties in school about this.
  Example:
  I have two pupils in my Year 7 class who word process everything.  If they write in class, I have real difficulty in getting a printout which is then stuck in their book ready for me to take away at the end of the lesson to mark.  I know it shouldn't be an issue but it is because I don't have a printer in the classroom, their laptops don't connect to the school system  and I have to send them off elsewhere to print.  Why do I want their work stuck in books?  Because I will lose an individual piece of paper  but not a pile of books.
  Exams
  I do the access arrangements work so I know that I have to apply for permissiion for wordprocessing.  Essentially, I have  to prove that they can wordprocess more effectively than they can write.  Many of 'my' pupils prefer to dictate (which is another argument altogether).  If all the pupils in my school wanted to wordprocess their exams, we could not accommodate this.  

  And I don't agree that most people don't write by hand.  Most people I see writing write short things but ones which need to be read easily - orders for food in the restautant, shopping lists, letters to their kids' teachers and so on.  You might as well say that people don't need to be able to read because there are computers who can read for you.  I think that writing by hand is a very different skill to using a computer.  I do all my creative story telling and poetry writing by hand for example.
  Amanda
  Secondary SENCO
  Cornwall
  Just one half day to go!

Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall