How to make it
- Type or pasteEnter spelling words, names or a sentence, each on its own line. The preview shows the South Australian style straight away.
- Tune the sheetSet the letter height, the number of traced and blank rows, a dark first copy, and the guide line colors that match your exercise books.
- Print for the classPrint at 100 percent or download a PDF to keep. A4 is chosen automatically for Australian browsers and can be changed.
From Reception onward
South Australian children begin school in Reception, and most begin handwriting there too, with a sloped, open hand often referred to as South Australian Modern Cursive. Even in the first year the letters are not quite plain print: many end in a small exit stroke, which means the step to joining in the following years comes naturally. Teachers usually build joins gradually, pair by pair, through the junior and middle primary years, with timing that differs between schools.
Because the style is particular to the state, families who arrive from elsewhere often find that the worksheets they bought or printed before the move no longer match what the classroom expects. This generator lets you make sheets in the local style from whatever words your child is working on this week.
Teachers use it the same way for a new arrival mid-year. A short sheet of the child's name and a few class words in the South Australian style, sent home in the first week, gives parents something concrete to practice with and shows the child what the class writes like before the differences start to feel like mistakes.
Features that mark the South Australian style
The style has a moderate forward slope, oval bodies on round letters, and short straight ascenders and descenders without loops. Exit strokes leave from the baseline on letters such as a, d, i, l and u, ready to swing up into the next letter. Capitals are kept simple and generally stand alone.
One detail people notice is the letter k, which the font on these sheets draws in two strokes, with a separate arm and leg, where some styles form it with a small loop. The font, Playwrite AU SA by TypeTogether, is a semi-connected sloped design; when you type a word, many of its letters join through the font's own connecting strokes. A space between letters keeps them apart for early practice. As always with a school-style font, compare a handful of letters with your school's chart, since schools and teachers vary in small ways.
Moving between states
Australia has no single school handwriting style; each state has its own, and they differ more than many parents expect. A child moving from Sydney to Adelaide, for instance, leaves the NSW Foundation style for a South Australian one, with a different slope, different exit strokes and some differently formed letters.
Teachers generally advise patience. A child in Year 3 or above who already writes fluently may keep much of the old hand, and many schools accept that, as long as the writing is legible and consistent. Younger children usually adapt quickly. A practical approach is to print the same five words in both styles, side by side, so the child can see which letters actually change; often it is only a handful. The menu on this page includes every Australian style we offer, and our page of Victorian Modern Cursive style sheets covers the neighbor to the east.
| State | School style usually taught | In our style menu |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | NSW Foundation style | Yes |
| Queensland | Queensland Beginners, later Queensland Modern Cursive | Yes (Beginners style) |
| Victoria | Victorian Modern Cursive | Yes |
| South Australia | South Australian Modern Cursive | Yes |
| Tasmania | Tasmanian Modern Cursive | Yes |
The sheet, row by row
Each line you type becomes a small block. The first row can show the words in solid dark ink as a model. The rows after it hold copies to trace, outlined with a fine dash, and if you turn on fading they get paler as they go, so the last traced row asks for more independence. Then come the empty rows, up to four, where the child writes alone.
The guide lines are fitted to the font. Tall letters reach the top line, the dashed midline sits at the height of the font's lowercase body, and the faint line underneath shows where descenders end. With Playwrite AU SA, the body of a letter takes up close to a third of the full height, much like the ruled books used in many South Australian classrooms.
The sheet does not show arrows, start dots or stroke numbers in this style. A font contains outlines only, with no record of where a stroke starts or which way it travels, and we have not yet created stroke data for the school fonts. Demonstrate each new letter first, then use the sheet to repeat it.
Is there a free South Australian font?
Fonts marketed under the South Australian Modern Cursive name are commercial, and we neither sell nor share them. Playwrite AU SA, however, is free: it is part of the Playwrite school font family on Google Fonts and is licensed under the SIL Open Font License, which lets teachers use it in classroom materials and share them. This generator has the font built in, so nothing needs installing here.
The license lets anyone use, embed and pass on the font, including in worksheets you type yourself with it and hand out or sell, provided the font file itself is not sold on its own. Sheets made on PencilPage are covered by our terms instead: they are yours to print and copy for your class, your family or your clients, and to share with other teachers, but not to resell. There is no watermark to crop off.
For installing it on a school laptop for your own documents, see free school handwriting fonts, which also explains why typed text in a word processor still lacks the tracing lines you get on this page.
Word ideas through the South Australian year
Seasonal words make good tracing material, and in South Australia the seasons run opposite to the northern hemisphere books many printables come from. In Term 1, try summer, hot, swim and shade. In Term 2, autumn, leaves, cool and rain. Term 3 brings winter, cold, coat and wind, and Term 4 spring, warm, bloom and bees. Four words a line at 16 mm (5/8 inch) suits Year 1; Year 3 can take a full sentence at 13 mm.
Save a term's words with Save this list and they appear in other generators too, so the same words can go into a word search maker for Friday. For a wider comparison of styles, see handwriting styles by country.
Questions
What is South Australian Modern Cursive?
It is the sloped handwriting style generally taught in South Australian schools. Letters are introduced with exit strokes from Reception so that they can be joined later with little change, ascenders and descenders are plain, and capitals are simple. Details vary a little between schools, so your school's chart is the best reference.
Is this the department's South Australian font?
No. The sheets use Playwrite AU SA, an independent open-licensed font in the South Australian style. It was not issued by the state, and some letters may differ slightly from your school's model, so compare before printing a full set.
Can I add arrows to show letter formation?
Not in this style. The South Australian rows are traced as a dashed outline without arrows or start dots, because fonts carry no stroke direction. Our print styles do show arrows, but they use upright American-style letters, so for South Australian shapes it is better to demonstrate the movement yourself.
How do I keep the letters from joining?
Type a space between each letter. The font joins letters inside a word by design, so separate letters for Reception practice should be typed as a b c rather than abc. For joined practice, type the word normally. A good Year 1 sheet mixes both: one line of separate letters from a letter group, such as c a d o, followed by a line of short words built from them, such as cod and doc.
Can I make a page for every child in my class?
Yes. Open name tracing, pick Australia: South Australian style from the style menu, and paste your names, each on a new line. With One page per name on, as it is from the start, the whole class arrives as one PDF, a child to a page. Nothing typed there leaves your device.
What letter size suits Reception?
Many Reception teachers start at 25 mm (1 inch) or larger, measured from the top line to the baseline, and come down to 19 mm during the year. By Year 2 many children write comfortably at 13 mm. In Australian browsers the Letter size menu shows these sizes in millimeters with Reception and Year names. Adjust for the child in front of you rather than the year level alone.