Pre-cursive name tracing

• What pre-cursive means here
• EYFS and the National Curriculum
• The writing framework
• Name writing practice
• Sizes
• Cursive names in Year 2
• Setting up for the class
• Common mistakes
• Questions

What pre-cursive means on these sheets

Pre-cursive is a loose term in English schools. It usually means separate letters shaped with joining in mind, and schemes differ in how far they take it. Some add a lead-in stroke from the line to the start of each letter; others keep a clean start and add only a small exit flick.

These sheets use Playwrite GB S, a free semi-joined font modelled on the modern cursive styles taught widely in England. In the unjoined setting the letters stand apart, many ending in a small exit flick, with no curved lead-ins. If your school teaches lead-ins, the shapes won’t match, so compare a printed page with your scheme’s chart before you make a class set. Choose Joined to see the same names with the joins in place.

Our guide to pre-cursive handwriting goes further into the different approaches and where they came from.

EYFS name writing and the National Curriculum

Name writing starts before school. Development Matters, the Department for Education’s non-statutory guidance for the early years, lists writing some or all of their name among the things three- and four-year-olds learn.

In Reception, children learn to form lower-case and capital letters correctly. Development Matters adds that at this stage, where a letter starts and which way it goes matter more than its size or position on a line. By the end of the year, the early learning goal for Writing looks for recognisable letters, most of them correctly formed.

For Year 1 handwriting, the National Curriculum asks pupils to sit correctly and hold a pencil comfortably, to begin forming lower-case letters in the correct direction, starting and finishing in the right place, to form capitals and digits, and to know which letters belong to which handwriting families. In Year 2 they size letters correctly against one another and start using the diagonal and horizontal strokes needed to join. A name practises all of this in a word children care about.

What the 2025 writing framework says

The Department for Education published The writing framework in July 2025, non-statutory guidance for primary schools with a long section on handwriting. Five points shape how you use pre-cursive handwriting worksheets.

• Start early, keep it regular. Handwriting teaching should begin in the first term of Reception and happen daily until pupils write legibly and easily, on top of the writing they do in phonics.
• Watch the tracing. The framework warns that copying from the board, tracing round dotted letters or practising without supervision can stop children building a strong mental model of how letters are formed. If you use tracing, keep it short, model the movement first, stay with the group and give the blank rows as much time as the grey ones.
• Print before joins. Joined handwriting shouldn’t be taught until children form unjoined letters correctly and consistently.
• Lead-ins are optional. There’s no expectation that schools teach lead-ins from the start, and the National Curriculum doesn’t require them, though some schools still do.
• Wide lines first. Year 1 children need wide-lined paper, mid-line guides help them place letters, and narrower lines come once their writing is legible and easy.

More on tracing in our article do tracing worksheets help?

Name writing practice for Reception and Year 1

A pre-cursive name tracing page is a five-minute job, best done with a small group at a table where you can see every pencil.

1. Ready to write. Feet on the floor, bottom to the back of the chair, pencil in one hand and the other hand on the paper. The framework calls these ‘ready to write’ routines.
2. Model the name. Write it large on a whiteboard while the children watch, naming the start of each letter in the words your scheme uses.
3. Air, then finger. Children write the first letter in the air, then trace the dark example row with a finger.
4. Pencil on the grey rows. Watch as they trace and stop a wrong start straight away rather than marking it later.
5. Blank rows. The name again, with no guide, to show what the child can do alone.

In Reception, begin with the largest size, Once in each row, one or two tracing rows and a single blank row. Build towards the default of three tracing rows and two blank rows as stamina grows. For more ideas, see our guide to teaching children to write their name, and try fine motor activities for children whose hands tire quickly.

Sizes for each year

Year	Letter height	Good for
Reception	20 mm	Children still building pencil control
Year 1	15 mm	Letters sitting comfortably between the lines
Year 2	11 mm	Close to everyday writing size

Measured from the top line to the baseline. Each row has a top line, a dashed midline, a baseline and a tail line for letters such as g, j and y, so children get wide lines with a mid-line guide. Long names shrink to fit. Print on A4 at actual size (100%), and move a child down a size when their letters sit comfortably within the lines. Our guide to handwriting lines explains each line.

Cursive name tracing in Year 2: the Joined option

Year 2 brings in the diagonal and horizontal strokes that join letters, and the National Curriculum guidance says children should be taught a joined style as soon as they form letters securely with the correct orientation. Switch to Joined and every name appears with its joins in place.

The writing framework teaches two basic joins: diagonal joins from letters that finish on the line, and horizontal joins from v, w, x, f and r. In Sara, a to r is a diagonal join and r to a is a horizontal one. Playwrite GB S is semi-joined, so letters that end with a backward stroke, such as b, g, p and s, don’t join to the next letter. That fits the curriculum’s point that some letters are best left unjoined, though schemes differ on which.

Move a child on to joined names when their unjoined letters are correct and consistent, not on a fixed date. Our guide on when to teach joined handwriting has more on timing.

Setting up for the whole class

Paste your class list, or import a CSV or text file, tick Sort names A to Z and download one PDF with a page per child. Lists over 100 names are offered as a second set.

• Make a page for every child at the start of term and keep them in a name-writing tray.
• Turn on the Name and Date line and file a dated page each half term, so you and parents can see progress.
• Add the Draw yourself box for a first-week page: a self-portrait above the name.
• Laminate a page for extra turns with a pencil-sized whiteboard pen, but keep the main practice on paper: the framework reports expert views that pencil and paper give more feedback than whiteboards.
• Drag pages into any order in the live preview, such as by group. What you see is exactly what prints. Choose grey lines to save ink.
• Send a page home so families see the same letter shapes as school.

Common mistakes and quick fixes

• Letters started in the wrong place. Group the letters of the name into families by where they start. The framework gives c, o, a, g, q and d as one typical family; teach the start once and it carries across the group. See teaching letters in families.
• Letters drawn from the bottom up. Starting point and direction count for more than size at this stage, so model again slowly and let the child trace with a finger first. Our guide to letter formation has the details.
• b and d swapped. In the framework’s families, b starts with a tall downstroke like h, and d starts like c and a. Linking each to its family helps children tell them apart. More in our guide to letter reversals.
• A tight or awkward grip. The framework describes a tripod grip: the pencil pinched between thumb and index finger about a finger space from the point, resting on the middle finger. See pencil grip.
• Left-handers smudging or hooking. Slant the paper to the right, seat them to the left of right-handed neighbours, and let them hold the pencil slightly higher so they can see their letters. Our guide for left-handed writers has more.

Questions

Sources

• Department for Education: National curriculum in England: English programmes of study
• Department for Education (2025): The writing framework
• Department for Education (2023): Development Matters
• Google Fonts: Playwrite England SemiJoined (Playwrite GB S)