* Some countries, such as France and the US, have a national style of handwriting. In the UK, the decision rests with individual schools
* Forty per cent of girls and 25 per cent of boys of school-leaving age say they suffer pain when writing quickly
* Children who write fewer than 10 words a minute can ask for permission to dictate exam answers to a scribe
* Some schools teach joined-up writing in Year 1. Others wait until Year 3
* Only one in three primary teachers claims to have received instruction in teaching handwriting during training
