This 2017/18 Outstanding Teaching, Learning and Assessment (OTLA 3 attainment, retention and progression) project was designed as an innovative response to Milton Keynes College's need to improve prisoners’ writing skills in the 9 prisons where it delivers the prison education service. The project tested whether adapting the ‘Talk for Writing’ method used in schools would work in the prison education setting. The project gathered a range of quantitative data across participating prisons that points to positive outcomes. Success rates in the various qualifications across all institutions improved between 5% and 55%. Progress tracking of some individual learners, showed for example, that one young offender progressed from being unable to spell to attempting a Level 2 qualification. Another went from Entry 2 to Level 2 in six months.

Accessibility note: The ETF edited and reformatted the case study for accessibility with screen readers, but unfortunately the 'Talking for Writing' templates and samples of learners' work in the resources folder below are as supplied to the ETF by the providers involved in the project and are unfortunately not accessible.