Maria Richards is an Accredited Talk for Writing trainer and consultant with a background in school improvement, raising standards and Closing the Gap. She first became involved with Talk for Writing as part of the National Strategies pilot in 2007, whilst working as a School Improvement Adviser for Literacy, in Somerset. This led to her writing the Somerset Talk for Writing training package, which was used by Maria and the Local Authority team to train schools across the region. Maria also trained other advisers in the Talk for Writing process.


Since becoming freelance in 2010, she has worked closely with numerous schools to implement the Talk for Writing techniques and strategies in order to impact on writing attainment. She has delivered training in many different settings and offers inset days, planning days and one-to-one support, to embed Talk for Writing into everyday practice. She regularly works with groups of schools on long-term projects, successfully raising their writing standards through focussed, consistent application of Talk for Writing.