'Feed the mind, nurture the spirit, free the imagination.'
Part of the Diocese of Salisbury Academy Trust
Talk is a part of human development that helps us to think, learn and make sense of the world. All of us use language as a tool for developing reasoning, knowledge and understanding. Therefore, encouraging children to talk as part of their learning is essential.
At Durweston, talking is key to our teaching. We use Talk for Writing, an approach to teaching writing that sees children talking as the first essential step towards literacy. In Maths, we use Maths No Problem, an approach that explicitly encourages talk to help with reasoning. Across all subjects, talking partners are a regular feature, giving children the chance to discuss ideas with a partners. Our Big Questions sessions explicitly teach the skills of listening, discussing and responding respectfully to the ideas of others.
We want all of our children to be confident and articulate. So we also provide them with plenty of opportunities to speak in public from the very moment the come in to school. From speaking in class, they progress to speaking in assemblies, in our annual Poetry competition, in the numerous services and performances that are part of our school life, in hustings for school council and for House Captains and for Head Boy and Girl. Perhaps one day, we will see a Durweston pupil speaking in Parliament!