The Great New Zealand Handwriting Challenge

Did you know that handwriting is the strongest factor in writing achievement for juniors, and that it remains a strong factor throughout the primary school years?

In addition, being able to hand-write well is key to student motivation and confidence.

And (last but not least) handwriting is crucial to reading development too. This is because only handwriting (and not typing), activates the 'orthographic mapping pathway' (the brain pathway which links sounds with letters on the page).

Wow!

The Great New Zealand Handwriting Challenge is an initiative to help share this knowledge.

The goals of the challenge are, to build a community of educators, to help share knowledge about the importance of handwriting, to ensure that it will soon be taught in every New Zealand classroom, for ten minutes, every single day.

Teachers and teacher-leaders, please get on board. Making handwriting a priority in all our classrooms is the single most important step we can take to address low rates of achievement in writing (and in reading). Luckily, it's a relatively easy skill to teach too (and students LOVE it).

So please, join the challenge! Visit our website: Download our TGNZHC poster to display in your staffroom, and book a free 60 minute webinar one the why, what, and how for teaching handwriting.

Join our Facebook group too (The Great New Zealand Handwriting Challenge).

Teach handwriting and change lives.