Year R Harvest celebration and Talk 4 Writing

Having only embarked on their ‘Talk 4 Writing’ learning journey at the beginning of October, it was clear at Cliftonville Primary School’s Year R Harvest celebration on Thursday that this is something the children and staff already feel passionately about. To rapturous applause, 90 four- and five-year old children stood confidently in front of their families and retold them, by heart, the story of the Little Red Hen and her own journey of making bread without the help of her friends. Out on display were the children’s own bread rolls that they had made in the roll of the Little Red Hen. Using actions and a story map to guide them, the children were able to use a variety of language and expression to tell their story with huge smiles on their faces.

Assistant Head teacher and leader of Literacy at Cliftonville School, Louise Wilson, explained...

"In our determination and drive to further raising standards in literacy we have embarked on adopting the ‘Talk 4 Writing’ approach to teaching reading and writing to enable children to imitate the key language they need for a particular topic orally before they try reading and analysing it. Through fun activities that help them rehearse the tune of the language they need, followed by shared writing with the teacher to show them how to create their own pieces of writing, children are helped to write in the same style. We have already seen an amazing impact, not only upon the quality of the writing the children are producing, but also in their developing love of literacy and their own confidence levels when speaking."

Children in Reception and year 1 have been learning the story of the Little Red Hen for the Harvest celebrations whilst Year 6 have produced some moving and powerful work based on the poem ‘The Highway Man’ by Alfred Noyes and Year 5 children have been working hard to create texts based on Michael Morpurgo’s ‘Born to Run’.

“Giving our children an opportunity to perform their work to their families and wider community here at Cliftonville School has given their learning purpose and meaning. We are very excited to see what the children will produce next.”