The Great New Zealand Handwriting Challenge

A new initiative is hoping to improve student handwriting throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, and benefit students in written expression, reading, and other areas across the curriculum.

In the 2021 NCEA pilot, only a third of students passed writing standards, and only two percent in low decile schools. The Great New Zealand Handwriting Challenge was established to correct this, with the aim of introducing explicit handwriting teaching into all New Zealand classrooms, every day of the school week.

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Challenge organiser Helen Walls hopes that handwriting will soon be taught in every New Zealand classroom for ten minutes a day, every day. “Establishing handwriting teaching and raising writing achievement in our country should be a top priority,” Dr Walls said. “The challenge is about building a groundswell of teachers committed to teaching handwriting.”

Students who are proficient in handwriting see flow on effects across all subjects. “Handwriting builds motivation and confidence. Students who can hand-write easily feel better about their writing and are more inclined to write,” Dr Walls said. This can improve student engagement across the curriculum.

Teaching students how to automatically write letters leads to better quality writing. When children can form letters easily, they gain memory space to express more interesting ideas. Practising letter shapes also builds brain pathways for reading, helping students learn and remember letter patterns and words.

The challenge aims to build a community of educators and advocates for teaching handwriting, and to share information about the importance of handwriting. Educators are also encouraged to share resources or PLD opportunities around teaching handwriting.

Already, support for the teaching of handwriting is building. Established by the Great New Zealand Handwriting challenge, a Facebook community of more than 2000 people is connecting like-minded educators, and about 500 teachers have attended free handwriting webinars.

“Teaching handwriting is easy and fun,” Dr Walls said. “Students love it, and we can teach it effectively in just ten minutes a day.”

If you are interested in joining the Great Handwriting Challenge or finding out more, contact Helen Walls. helen@thewritingteacher.net