At Parkview, we prioritise language and literacy as the foundations of learning. Children’s spoken language is crucial to future success in reading and writing. This starts in Nursery, where there is an emphasis on rhymes, traditional tales and songs. 

"It’s not just about saying words into children’s ears that will support their development. It should be a quality interaction such as reading a book and readying the child for thoughtful discussion and helping them to explore their world.” David Purpura, an associate professor in the College of Health and Human Sciences’ Department of Human Development and Family Studies.

Language development at the age of 2 years predicts children's performance later on when entering primary school. Children's understanding and use of vocabulary and their use of two or three-word sentences at 2 years is very strongly associated with their performance in later school years.

(Sue Roulstone James Law, Robert Rush, Judy Clegg, Tim Peters for the Department for Education)

The research is clear that those children who are supported to develop strong language skills in their earliest years, are more likely to succeed in school and work and lead happier lives.

The more children take part in conversations and discussion, the more they will understand once they can read and the more vocabulary and ideas they will have to draw on when they can write.

The Reading Framework, 2023.

Early Talk Boost

We are an Early Talk Boost school. This is a targeted programme aimed at 3-4 year old children who need help with talking and understanding words. Most importantly, the programme helps to boost their language skills to narrow the gap between them and their peers. The programme aims to accelerate children’s progress in language and communication by an average of 5 months after 9 weeks.

Children who are selected to take part in the programme will attend three sessions per week, each lasting 15-20 minutes delivered by either Mrs Gascoyne or Mrs Lucas. The sessions include activities that cover the foundation skills in speech, language and communication that children need for learning and understanding new words, as well as having conversations.

What are the benefits of Talk Boost?

The benefits are:

• Supports children who are not achieving their expected levels of progress in their language development
• Focusing on developing staff skills
• Help to build relationships with parents, by reinforcing the language skills the child learned during the group sessions
• An all-in-one speech and language solution package
• Can be used by non speech and language specialists
• Proven to improve children’s language and communication through our evidence base
• Designed to be sustainable so you can deliver the programme multiple times to new groups of children
• A dedicated team to support you to maximise the impact of Early Talk Boost in your setting
• Identify, monitor and track children’s progress before and following the programme with the online tracker

Speech Link 

If you are worried your child has a speech and language delay, please find further information here:

Parkview Primary School - Speech & Language Delay

Useful Resources

The resources below may be helpful in developing speech, language and communication at home.

Tiny Happy People
Excellent advice and strategies for parents for children 0-5

Spoken Language & Listening Planner

The planner below is the essential learning in each year group to ensure our Year 6 pupils leave Parkview confident to participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role-play/improvisations and debates. It ensures our pupils can speak audibly, fluently and can articulate and justify answers and opinions.