Victorian Modern Cursive name tracing

• Who they’re for
• Making a class set
• The letters on the page
• Little and often
• Foundation to Level 2
• Joined handwriting
• Ideas for Foundation
• Left-handers and other snags
• Questions

Foundation name tracing in Victoria: who it’s for

These sheets are for Foundation to Year 2 in Victoria, where schools teach Victorian Modern Cursive (VMC). To start at a government school, a child must turn five before 30 April of that year, so most Foundation children are around five when they begin.

The Victorian Curriculum (Version 2.0) sets the handwriting goals. In Foundation, children form most lowercase and capital letters using the formations they’ve been taught, after clear demonstrations of where to start and which way to go. Levels 1 and 2 write words in unjoined letters, legibly and with growing fluency by Level 2. Level 3 brings joined letters that are clearly formed and consistent in size. Victorian Modern Cursive name tracing suits the unjoined years and the first steps into joining.

Names are a good place to begin. The Department’s former Literacy Teaching Toolkit noted research finding that being able to handwrite your own name is an important element in predicting early writing success. For students working towards Foundation, the curriculum’s Foundation Level D suggests writing one or more letters of their name, such as signing in on arrival.

Making a class set of VIC Modern Cursive worksheets

1. Paste the class list, one name per line, or import a CSV or text file.
2. Keep Unjoined and the Prep / Foundation size for new writers.
3. Set the rows to trace and the blank rows, and choose whether the name fills each row or appears once.
4. Sort the names A to Z or drag pages into order in the live preview, check the spelling, then download one A4 PDF.

Lists over 100 names come as a second set. Names are never uploaded: the pages are made in your browser.

For a sign-in routine, make each child’s page with “Once”, one tracing row and a few blank rows, slip it into a plastic sleeve and keep the pile by the door. Children find their name, trace it with a whiteboard marker and write it once on their own as they arrive.

What makes Victorian Modern Cursive letters different

The Department describes Victorian Modern Cursive as a sloping style built on downstrokes, with letters that start at the top and quick changes of direction that leave a wedge shape. On a Foundation sheet, four things stand out:

• Most lowercase letters start at the top. The exceptions are d, which starts at one o’clock on its round part, and e, which starts at nine o’clock.
• Most lowercase letters finish with a small upward exit stroke to the right, often called a flick. Later, that exit becomes the join.
• The letters m, n, r, x and z begin with a rounded entry.
• Every lowercase letter is one movement except f, t and x, which take two strokes, and i and j, which finish with a dot.

The Department’s alphabet models show the letters on single lines and on dotted thirds, which split the writing space into three. These sheets draw the same idea with a top line, a dashed midline, a baseline and a tail line. Our guide to Victorian Modern Cursive covers the style and the curriculum in more depth.

Little and often: VMC handwriting practice that sticks

The Department’s toolkit pointed to research favouring short daily practice over longer weekly lessons. A name sheet fits that well: five minutes, most days.

1. Model the first letter while saying the movement. Short, memorable lines work best, like the toolkit’s “t is a teenager, not fully grown”.
2. Trace the example row with a finger, then the grey rows in pencil.
3. Stay close for the first rows. Practice only helps if each letter is formed correctly, so watch every starting point.
4. End with a blank row and ask your child to circle their best name.

The toolkit also suggests teaching letters in formation groups rather than in ABC order: anticlockwise letters (a, c, d, g, q, e, o, f, s), clockwise letters (m, n, r, x, z, h, k, p), the i family (i, t, l, j) and the u family (u, y, v, w, b). A name usually mixes groups, so use it to revisit this week’s group: the anticlockwise letters in “Grace”, or the u family in “Ruby”.

From Foundation to Level 2

• Foundation, Term 1: first name, the Prep / Foundation size, “Capital first letter”, three or four tracing rows and one blank row.
• Foundation, Terms 2 to 4: add the surname, and shift the balance towards blank rows. “Dotted outline” letters make children slow down at the turns.
• Level 1: the Year 1 size, mostly blank rows, and “Fill the row” for stamina.
• Level 2: the Year 2 size. Once letters are well formed, notice whether the name comes a little faster without getting messier, which is what growing fluency looks like.

Year	Letter height	Good for
Prep / Foundation	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

The size is the height from the top line to the baseline. If a name is too long for the row at that size, it shrinks to fit.

Joined handwriting in Victoria

Students learn to form the unjoined letters correctly before they join, and the Department treats forming and joining as separate skills. Because many letters already end with an exit stroke, the first joins often feel like stretching that flick across to the next letter. The curriculum sets joined letters as a Level 3 goal, with fluency and automaticity building in Level 4.

Choose Joined and the same name appears with its joins. The Department suggests young writers join two or three letters at a time, with pen lifts in between, so a fully joined name is a model to aim for rather than a test. Speed loops, shown in one of the Department’s joined models, come later still. Our guide on when to teach joined handwriting covers the signs of readiness.

Ideas for the first weeks of Foundation

• Rainbow tracing: children trace each grey row in a different coloured pencil, which keeps repeated rows fresh.
• Trace, then copy: set three tracing rows and two blank rows, so the page ends with independent writing.
• Draw yourself: tick the “Draw yourself” box for a self-portrait under the name, a good first-week page for the classroom wall.
• Send one home: a page in the reader bag shows families the letter shapes the school uses.
• Print it right: print on A4 at actual size (100%), and choose grey lines if your copier prints only in black and white.

Left-handers, reversals and other snags

• Left-handed writers. The Department publishes separate alphabet models for left-handers. Its toolkit suggests holding the pencil about 2.5 to 3.8 cm from the point and tilting the page so the top left corner sits higher, and many left-handers cross a t or f from right to left. Our guide to left-handed writers has more.
• b and d swap, or N faces backwards. The Department’s guide calls reversals normal for some children between five and eight. For d, remind them it starts at one o’clock on the round part, not at the top like b. See letter reversals.
• Flicks that grow into tails. Keep the exit small and pointing up to the right. If flicks are making letters messy, ask the teacher whether to leave them off for now.
• A tight grip or a sore hand. Choose “Once” and fewer rows, and look at pencil grip and fine motor activities before adding more practice.

Questions

Sources

• VCAA: Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0, English
• Department of Education, Victoria: Handwriting fonts (Arc)
• Department of Education, Victoria: Handwriting, Literacy Teaching Toolkit, with its Victorian Modern Cursive, Letter formation and Joining letters guides (archived June 2024)
• Victorian Government: Starting primary school guide