Frequently Asked Questions
Passwords
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Why isn’t my free trial password working?- Try copying and pasting the username and password so that there are no errors. If this still doesn’t work, please email us with the details you used to set up your free trial.
- Does each pupil have their own log in to Letter-join?
- All children will use the same username and password on PCs and the same username and swipecode on tablets.
Once logged-in pupils select their class name which has been set by the Administrator.
Subscriptions
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- Are there discounts for school clusters/academies/MATs?
- If you are part of an academy, learning trust or cluster of schools, please contact us and we can offer a group discount when there are three or more schools subscribed. The discount should also apply to subsequent re-subscriptions.
- What are Letter-join’s payment terms?
- Invoices can be paid by cheque, BACS or online. Payment terms are 30 days.
- How do I order a school subscription?
- Go to www.letterjoin.co.uk and click the ‘Buy’ button at the top of the page. Complete the Cost Calculator then select your payment method. Fill in the registration form and you will receive a confirmation email. Soon after you will receive another email with your log-in details and a PDF of your Invoice.
Letter-join Orders cannot be placed over the phone. - Can I pay using a credit card?
- To pay by credit card, click the ‘Pay Now’ button on the PDF of your Letter-join invoice.
This will take you to our online payment system, Stripe. - Can I pay with PayPal?
- PayPal is used to process Home Subscriptions only. Your payment will be taken and the subscription will be set up automatically.
- Can I order a Letter-join subscription from an overseas school?
- Yes, you can order from overseas. Please complete the Cost Calculator ensuring that you click the ‘I am outside of the UK’ button. Payment can be made by PayPal, credit card or CHAPS.
- Is Letter-join useful for a home-educated pupil who has never been to school?
- Letter-join is perfect for home-educated children. If you wish to follow a structured scheme, which progresses from Early Years to Year 6, then you would need to buy a school subscription for one classroom account in order to follow the modules.
This will also give you access to the Handwriting Recovery Programme which is useful for introducing older children to cursive handwriting for the first time.
However, Letter-join has been designed to be flexible and adaptable, allowing plenty of scope to respond to individual children’s needs so, if you would prefer, a Home Account will be perfectly suitable. - Is Letter-join an App?
- Letter-join is not an App. There is no download. Letter-join is a subscription-based website that runs through a website browser.
- Can I share the free trial across the school?
- You can share the 30 day free trial log-in details with all staff at your school. Pupils can also log in on PCs and tablets for the free trial period.
- Why have I not received my free trial password ?
- Please check in case our Welcome email has gone into your junk folder. If you cannot find it, please email us with the details you used to set up your free trial.
- What is included in the free trial?
- The Letter-join free trial is based on the School Edition. It includes all of the on-line animations and activities and a wide selection of worksheets.
The following resources are not available with the free trial:
• the Lesson Planners and many of the worksheets used for the Lesson Planners
• the Handwriting Policy MS Word document
• the downloadable font
• Home Learning Task facility
• Home Learning Packs
• Handwriting Assessment Tracker
• Handwriting Recovery Programme - Where do you store information you hold for schools?
- In line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we understand our obligation to store securely the contact details of our customers; those being personal identifiers, mainly names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses. This data is kept securely and is only accessible by staff at Green and Tempest Ltd. All data is deleted from our systems immediately upon customer notification of termination of a subscription.
Please copy the link below for our GDPR statement
https://www.letterjoin.co.uk/GDPR.pdf - Can I have more than one free trial?
- You can only register once for a free trial with any email address. If you would like more time for your free trial, you will be given an option to extend it if it has been interrupted by school holidays.
- If I sign up for the free trial, will I be tied into a paid subscription?
- No, the trial will simply end after 30 days. We do not take any credit/debit card details from you.
- How do I order Letter-join from overseas?
- Please complete the Cost Calculator ensuring that you click the ‘I am outside of the UK’ button. Payment can be made by PayPal, credit card or CHAPS
- What’s not included in the free trial?
- The following resources are not available with the free trial:
• Lesson Planners and many of the worksheets used for the Lesson Planners
• Handwriting Policy MS Word document
• the downloadable font
• Home Learning Task facility
• Home Learning Packs
• Handwriting Assessment Tracker
• Handwriting Recovery Programme
Fonts
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- Can I use Letter-join fonts with ActiveInspire?
- ActiveInspire doesn’t have a facility to use Open Type fonts that can be used with contextual alternates. This is a function that is needed to join cursive letters correctly.
Only True Type Fonts (TTF) can be used with ActiveInspire and Letter-join’s no-lead TTF fonts will not display correctly as there is no lead-in line on the letters to join to the next letter.
The following TTF fonts are available:
Joined cursive - based on Letter-join Plus
Unjoined cursive - Based on Letter-join Air No-lead
Print Plus - a printed font with lead-out lines on letters that end on the line - Can I use the Letter-join fonts in other programmes?
- For the Letter-join fonts to display correctly they have to be used with a function called ‘Contextual Alternates’. This allows the correct letter shape to be used depending on what letter is before and after it.
For programmes where Contextual Alternates is not available we have developed Letter-join Basic, a font which mimics, as closely as possible, Letter-join Plus. Letter-join Basic is not part of the MSI Installer and has to be installed onto individual computers.
Use Letter-join Basic for the following programmes:
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Publisher
• Smart Notebook
• ActivInspire - How do I download the Letter-join fonts?
- The Letter-join fonts can only be downloaded by schools with a current Letterjoin School subscription. Only the School Administrator can download fonts from the Letter-join Admin page.
- Can I select different letterforms for f, k, w, x and z?
- Yes, there are different options for f, k, w, x and z. Your choices will be used for all classroom accounts, children’s log-ins and printout sheets.
- How do I install the Letter-join fonts onto an Apple Mac?
- Log in to Letter-join as a Letter-join ’School Administrator’ and select the ’Download Fonts’ button in the left hand menu. Follow the instructions on the page to download fonts onto your computer. Once the font is downloaded, double click on it and it will open in FontBook. Click the ’Install’ button. Please quit and restart any programmes that use the fonts so that they appear in the font list. You will need to make sure that whatever programme you are using, you are enabling Contextual Alternates.
Set-up
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- How do I set up my Letter-join subscription?
- The named administrator for Letter-join can set up the Admin page. This is where the following features are accessed and changed:
• Preferred Letterforms
• Font downloads
• Pupil log-in
• Classroom information
Teaching with Letter-join
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- How do we introduce Letter-join for the first time in KS2?
- Letter-join includes a Handwriting Recovery Programme specifically aimed at older pupils who have not been introduced to a particular handwriting style before, or who need extra support in order to improve their handwriting. This is available with a school Letter-join subscription.
- Can Letter-join help to teach children with special needs?
- Letter-join is an excellent resource for teaching children with special educational needs, particularly dyslexia.
It delivers a multi-sensory approach to learning handwriting and Letter-join’s combination of interactive animations, games, activities and worksheets enables children to experience a range of visual, auditory, kinaesthetic and tactile factors of teaching and learning.
In addition, Letter-join’s Handwriting Recovery Programme offers a concise step-by-step intervention tailored to improve a specific skill in children whose handwriting is limited by difficulties with fine motor development, including left-handed children. - How would I use Letter-join’s resources with a mixed age class?
- The aim of Letter-join’s Lesson Planners is to be flexible. The Lesson Planners are designed so that teachers can use them as a toolkit to support and reinforce the teaching of handwriting and they allow plenty of scope to respond to individual children’s needs. Our advice would be to start with the Module for the younger year group in each class and then progress through the lessons at an appropriate pace suitable for that class. There are differentiation activities for Extra Practice and Extra Challenge listed in each section of the Modules.
- Is Letter-join Phonics a complete scheme?
- Letter-join’s Phonics resource is designed to support your school’s chosen phonics programme, it is not a complete scheme. Letter-join Phonics allows you to teach Phases 1 to 5 using the Letter-join printed or cursive fonts. The aim is to combine the teaching of phonics with handwriting. Letter-join phonics is a flexible resource, allowing teachers the opportunity to reinforce the children’s phonics learning as required.
- Is there any form of assessment to track pupil’s progress?
- Letter-join’s Handwriting Assessment Tracker Pack has been designed in line with National Curriculum targets for handwriting. It provides a complete scheme for assessing pupils’ progression in handwriting skills from Early Years to Year 6.
- Do you have a document that shows progression through the school?
- Letter-join has a Handwriting Progression document which models a whole school approach to handwriting using the Letter-join scheme.
This document is available to school subscribers. - Are there verbal paths for individual letters?
- There are verbal paths modelling orientation of individual letters for all of the Letter-join fonts. Please use the search bar and enter - verbal path.
- Is Letter-join compatible with the DfE’s Writing Framework 2025?
- Yes, the DfE’s Writing Framework 2025 puts emphasis on explicit handwriting instruction and the development of transcription skills, which Letter-join provides through its lesson plans and resources designed to meet National Curriculum requirements.
Letter-join’s resources:
• support Early Years children to hold their pencil comfortably for writing through a range of fun activities that develop fine and gross motor skills and strength, in addition to handwriting instruction and practice.
• effectively facilitate the framework’s guidance on teaching letter formation, joining and spacing, helping children develop fluent and legible handwriting from Early Years to Year 6.
• provide lesson planners and activities for regular, daily handwriting practice, aligning with the framework’s aim for explicit instruction in transcription skills.
• model how to use the diagonal and horizontal strokes needed for joining, which underpin the framework’s objective to teach these basic joins to enhance fluency and speed.
• cover the key stage requirements for handwriting, ensuring that pupils achieve the necessary skills and fluency to meet expected standards, as outlined in the DfE’s framework.
• include lesson plans, worksheets and interactive games and activities to support the progressive development of handwriting skills throughout the whole school.
