Penn Wood Primary, Slough, Berkshire

Penn Wood Primary and Nursery School in Slough is a large, culturally diverse school. 85% of children have English as an Additional Language and mobility is high. The school benefits from buildings and grounds that have been designed to support learning for children and adults alike.

Talk for Writing practice is firmly embedded across the school and has impacted positively upon standards in reading and writing and leadership. The achievement gap between children entitled to pupil premium and other children nationally is closing and Talk for Writing, with its emphasis on feedback, collaboration and meta-cognition, has been key to this improvement. Pie has been pivotal in our school improvement work for five years or more and the school took part in the ‘Transforming Writing’ Research Project with the National Literacy Trust.

Based upon specific requirements, Penn Wood can tailor training packages or visits using the repertoire of themes below that reflect the essential ingredients of Talk for Writing to inform discussion:

• Immersion, Innovation and Invention
• Storytelling and the use of a Literature Spine
• Reading as a reader; reading as a writer
• Embedding language games and activities
• Developing Toolkits for Writing
• Effective Feedback – feeding back and feeding forward
• Whole school planning for Talk for Writing including the allocation of texts and language features across the school
• Mini-writing lessons; guided writing
• Supporting the development of writing with images, objects, music and thinking maps
• Creating the Environment for Talk for Writing including celebrating writing
• Poetry
• Non-Fiction writing
• Leadership of Talk for Writing
• Developing an approach to CPD for Talk for Writing including coaching
• Blogging

Current training offered

Training day at Penn Wood – £150 per person for a full day, including lunch.

All dates are listed here: www.pennwood.slough.sch.uk/talk-for-writing/

Maths work Penn Wood Primary
“Thank you – this has been an inspirational and informative day. It has been amazing to see Talk for Writing in action across the school, and the consistency between the learning environments was really impressive.”Training delegate
Teacher and flipchart Penn Wood Primary

School Training

Penn Wood School has two members of staff who are accredited Talk for Writing trainers and can provide Talk for Writing training for your school.