Talking Partners Information

Talking Partners was designed by members of the Bradford Language and Literacy and Ethnic Minority Support teams and is a structured oral language programme, providing part of an integrated approach to raise levels of achievement. Although Talking Partners was originally designed for and trialled with pupils who have English as an additional language, the programme is now used with equal success in a variety of contexts.

Talking Partners aims to improve pupils’ speaking and listening skills.

Talking Partners draws particular attention to the links between oracy and literacy.

Talking Partners offers training to adults in schools to work with pupils, aged 4 – 11, helping them to become more confident and competent users of English. A teacher is appointed as the school co-ordinator and s/he will also be trained in the programme.

Standardised assessment shows average gains of over a year after a ten-week programme. Pupils are able to participate more fully in the classroom. The success also shows in increased control over structure and form in writing.

What do Talking Partners do?

• Trained Partners work with groups of three pupils for twenty minutes, three times a week for ten weeks.

• They work with pupils so that they learn how to listen more actively and how to talk for a range of purposes.

• They use activities that have been specifically designed to support the development of oral language skills required for academic success.

What does the training include?

We offer two strands of training:-

1. The 2-day training course for Bradford Schools includes:

• Observation of 2 lessons
• Discussion and analysis of how pupils learn
• The opportunity to try the range of activities in the programme
• How to plan activities and find the resources
• How to record pupils’ progress
• Participants are provided with all necessary materials with which to start a Talking Partners programme in school 

2. The 3-day training course is designed for representatives from other authorities, who are interested in establishing Talking Partners in their area. This includes:

• All components of the two-day training course for Talking Partners, i.e. lesson observations, discussion and analysis, opportunities to try all the activities, planning and recording.
• Visits to schools to see Talking Partners in action and to meet school co-ordinators to discuss how the programme operates in school.
• All materials required both to run the two-day course and to operate the programme  
• Access to the Talking Partners national network, which includes regular programme updates and  information about new materials

 Link  to External application form

For further information about the Talking Partners programmes please contact:

Clare Reed/Jan Hill

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Education Bradford, 01274 385738 or 385887

 Information about Nurturing Talk

Nurturing Talk is a comprehensive resource pack to enable practitioners to work effectively with children who have SEBD (Social,Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties) needs in any educational setting from KS1 to early KS3.

It is based on the Talking Partners programme and will help children develop their language and thought processes to enable them to communicate effectively with children and adults.

It links with the SEAL pack-both models of practice taken from the Silver Strand and other resources available.

 Click here for information about how to buy the Nurturing Talk resources