Madinat Khalifa Primary Headlines | Monday, 4 November 2019

Dear Parents,

We have had a great first week back after half term. 

The students across Primary have been involved in a wide range of activities as International Primary Curriculum (IPC) units have kicked off with engaging Entry Points and educational visits.

We also held a secondary showcase for our Year 5 and 6 students and parents on Thursday morning. This showcase involved talks from Head of Secondary, Mr Douch, presentations from a number of students and some very exciting science experiments led by Mr Rayner.

Talk for Writing

As a school, we are always looking to develop our curriculum to ensure it meets the needs of all of our learners. One such example is how we are developing our teaching of writing across the Primary school. Over the course of the years, particular text types will be taught using the ‘Talk for Writing’ approach. As the name suggests this approach focuses on a lot of discussion, talk and reading of stories.

Luckily, we have a number of teachers in school that have experience with this approach and have been able to share best practice with all staff. On Monday, our Primary English Lead, Mrs Wheatley, led a teacher workshop where she demonstrated and explained each stage of the process. If you had walked past the room you would have seen and heard all teachers recounting a visit to a farm, including actions for key phrases and punctuation. I’ve included a picture to prove it!

Talk for Writing starts with enjoying and sharing stories. Throughout the school, we place a strong emphasis on children reading stories and enjoying a range of literature. Through regular reading, we want children to build up an extensive and varied vocabulary for use in their own writing.

During the initial 'imitation' stage of Talk for Writing, children learn to tell a story off by heart. They retell a text with expression and actions and make use of a story map to support their retelling. Once the story is learnt, children are encouraged to adapt it. At the 'innovation' stage, children make the story their own, for example, by changing the character or setting. Finally, at the 'invention stage’, children write their own text independently.

If you are interested in finding out more about this approach to writing then please do attend our Primary Parent Workshop on Sunday, 10 November at 7:30am.

Have a great week,

Jimmy Frawley, Head of Primary Madinat Khalifa