Page 12 - The East Sussex Way

All staff model talking with reasoning and speciÞ ed vocabulary for
each subject. This complements Philosophy for Children (P4C) and
debate lessons which are taught across the whole school. Many
elements of P4C have also been applied to other subjects and
lessons – for instance, using ‘palms out and up’ (instead of hands-up)
during small group discussions and whole-class talk.

These approaches have helped create a learning environment
where talk and sharing ideas is welcomed and valued. Lessons
centre around collaborative learning through exploratory talk and
discussions. By the time pupils reach Year 6, we intend that their
language skills – taught through our ‘talk-rich’ approach, robust
vocabulary and imitating through practice – will help close the word
gap predicted at the point of transition.

In 2020, staff were trained in Pie Corbett’s Talk for Writing (TfW), which
is based on the principle of enabling pupils to imitate language
orally before reading and exploring targeted writing skills. Teaching
includes ‘thinking aloud’ to make the writing process explicit,
articulating thought processes and explaining choices. Pupils then
mimic this through practice and apply a range of language and
writing skills in their own work. Whilst predominantly used in English,
many aspects of TfW have been adapted and applied to other
subjects too.

Impact

Across the school, pupils are more conÞ dent in using key taught
vocabulary and increasingly demonstrate robust vocabulary skills.
Year 5 and 6 pupils especially use focus vocabulary regularly in
their written work, including tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary taught the
previous year.

Staff and visitors to the school regularly comment on pupils’ conÞ dent
oracy skills across the school. Pupils of all abilities have become

increasingly conÞ dent when talking and discussing ideas, sharing
fuller answers and using richer vocabulary. Particularly in upper key
stage 2, pupils show even greater maturity around concepts they
discuss and apply thoughtful reasoning. Responses have become
more sophisticated and articulate.

Since using TfW, pupils have shown more enjoyment, interest
and respect for exploring language and are developing greater
understanding of the writing process by talking aloud about
this. Adapting and applying the approach in other subjects has

consolidated pupils’ understanding still further, especially higher up in
7 the school.