Glenwood Primary School, Belfast

Glenwood Primary School is a large school situated in the Shankill area of Belfast. We are the only Talk for Writing Showcase School in Northern Ireland.

We are a three-form entry school, with 4 additional SEN classes and a nurture unit. 73% of children are entitled to free school meals, 24% are on the SEN register and 38% of these children have additional social, emotional or behavioural needs.

We adopted Talk for Writing in 2018 having attended a one-day conference with Pie Corbett in Belfast. We could immediately see the benefit of the approach and took on further training with Jamie Thomas.

Talk for Writing has transformed the teaching of writing in our school. We have established a consistency in teaching, as well as a clear progression through the school. Expectations of what the children can achieve have been set much higher. Rather than reading weeks or book day events, we now have high quality, inspired teaching of writing all year round.

The impact of the Talk for Writing approach at Glenwood is clear to see and we look forward to sharing our progress with you when you visit.