Talking Partners in Canada

For the third time in as many years, Clare travelled to Prince Albert in September 2011 - in the prairie province of Saskatchewan to deliver Talking Partners (TP) training to support their Speaking & Learning provision.

She worked with both First Nation & Provinicial schools to initially improve whole class communication skills and strategies. This will shortly be followed up with trained staff delivering the 10 week intervention TP programme to targeted children.

Previous trips have proved very successful showing impressive results in not only children’s Speaking and Listening skills but also their reading and writing attainment. These trained partners also commented favourably on their own professional development and how they thoroughly enjoyed delivering TP. One said:

‘...seeing the children in your group grow in confidence with their Speaking and Listening skills is such a joy, particularly when you know that you’ve had a major role in that...’

During the Trainer Training this year, Clare also facilitated a partnership between the advisory teachers who work in the First Nation schools on the Reserves and the provincial schools in Prince Albert. This will enable trainers to share good practice and support the continuation of Talking Partners.