Talk for WritingAccelerated Progress in Writing

At Nord Anglia International School Shanghai, Pudong (NAIS), we believe firmly that every child has the potential to become a confident communicator and writer.  Across Early Years and Primary, and leading into our Key Stage 3 transition, we utilise the Talk for Writing approach to accelerate our students’ progress in reading and writing and, crucially, in their speaking and listening.

This structured and creative approach provides each of our students with a solid foundation, ready for the rigours of their secondary education learning journey. Originally devised for students who speak English as an additional language, this approach has a proven track record of enabling outstanding progress in language acquisition.  For this reason, the Talk for Writing approach has now been adopted by thousands of schools in the UK, supporting both native and non-native English speakers alike.  

What is Talking for Writing?

Developed by UK education expert Pie Corbett, Talk for Writing is an innovative approach that prioritises quality 'talk' before writing, in recognition of the fact that robust oracy skills - confident speaking and listening - are prerequisite for the development of structured, expressive and vocabulary-rich writing. 

Through creative language activities incorporating role-play, story mapping and high-quality teacher modelling, students are enabled to internalise different genres, broaden their vocabulary and, ultimately, to write with purpose and enjoyment - and all whilst aligning fully with English National Curriculum objectives.

A Step-by-Step Insight into Talk for Writing Journey:

At NAIS Pudong, Talk for Writing is implemented through three core stages, tailored to each student’s individual developmental needs.

Imitation and Immersion Phase (Week 1) 

Teachers introduce quality texts, each carefully selected to engage our students through exciting, vocabulary-rich plots.  Through a process of whole-class storytelling, scaffolded through engaging actions and story mapping, every student is enabled to commit shared texts to memory and to relay these orally with ever-growing confidence.  This initial week is also underpinned by a broad range of focused tasks designed to develop students' spelling, punctuation and grammar, in line with English National Curriculum expectations.

Innovation Phase (Week 2) 

With language patterns and plot structures securely embedded, students begin the task of planning and creating their own unique texts, through a lesson sequence scaffolded to meet their individual needs.  Typically, for students who are new to our school community/emerging English speakers, this will involve their substituting key components within the text, such as: the main character or place setting.  By contrast, for confident writers, this will also provide opportunity for complexity, allowing students to experiment and explore within the creative writing process: replacing, reordering, re-thinking and even challenging genre types, in order to create something that is both unique to them, and purposeful for their identified audience. This Innovation Phase specifically is bolstered by intensive adult support: through both ongoing in-the-moment feedback, as well as detailed interactive marking, challenging students to further engage with a range a writing strategies made available to them through shared genre-specific toolkits. 

Independent Application Phase (Week 3)

As students enter their third week of the Talk for Writing unit, they do so with a deepened understanding of the specific genre demands, and with a clear understanding of personal targets reviewed in partnership with their class teacher. Frequently, therefore, it is here that we see our students beginning to flourish as young writers, moving further away from the initial shared text, towards creative pieces of work that are truly unique and meaningful to them. Through both written and spoken application of toolkit features, it is arguably within this phase of our Talk for Writing journey that we also see the greatest sense of ownership amongst our students: by this point in time, students have benefitted not only from enjoying quality shared texts and modelled teacher examples, but also countless animated class discussions, through which learning is further embedded and creativity further developed.  It is due to this scaffolded approach, not only in relation to skills development, but also in relation to creativity itself, that we see highly motivated and enthusiastic writers across every class and every learner group within our school.

Helping Every Child Find Their Voice Through Language

Talk for Writing is not simply a teaching strategy supporting cognitive growth — it’s a journey into creativity and confidence. At NAIS Pudong, we are proud to see students discovering and shaping their unique voices, using language to express themselves and to make sense of the world around them. Year on year, this shared sense of pride is validated through accelerated progress and high attainment standards evidenced across the school - not only in Reading and Writing but, crucially, also in speaking and listening.  Nowhere is this success story more evident than amongst our students joining us in Pre-Nursery, reinforcing the rigour of our Early Years programme: the earlier they join, the greater the benefit. 

With thanks to our ever committed teaching team, and to our parent community for its ongoing support, we warmly invite prospective parents to explore our unique community further by contacting our admissions team.