This year we were successful in our application to join a very exciting new whole school project called ‘Voice 21’ which aims to develop our pupils’ oracy skills. Voice 21 is a national oracy education charity who aim to transform the learning and life chances of young people through talk so that all children can use their voice for success in school and in life.

What is oracy and why is it important?

We believe that oracy is a powerful tool for learning; by teaching pupils to become more effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. It is also a route to social mobility, empowering all pupils to find their voice to succeed in school and life. Through a high quality oracy education students learn through talk and to talk. This is when they develop and deepen their subject knowledge and understanding through talk in the classroom, which has been planned, designed, modelled, scaffolded and structured to enable them to learn the skills needed to talk effectively.

What does the project involve?

Two members of staff (Miss Green – Year 1 class teacher and Mrs Kamperman – Deputy Head and Year 6 class teacher) are acting as our ‘Oracy Champions’ and they will be attending training throughout the year. This will then be shared with other members of staff so that the strategies can be implemented across the school. 

Some of the work which has been completed in classes so far includes:

• All classes have agreed their 'Discussion Guidelines' which sets out how everyone in the class

  (including the adults) will work together to ensure that everyone has a voice and that their contributions are valued. 

• We have introduced the 'Oracy Frameworks' so that children in each key stage know what oracy skills they are working towards. 

• Children are encouraged to use 'Talk Tactics' to support them in developing their oracy skills across the curriculum.  This is further supported by the use of sentence stems and key vocabulary in lessons.

  In Foundation and Year 1 children are introduced to the concept of agreeing and disagreeing with their peers using 'because' to support their reasoning. 

  • I agree because ...

  • I disagree because ... 

In Key Stage 2, children are taught how to use a range of talk tactics to enable them to: 

-Build (develop, add or elaborate on an idea)

-Challenge (Politely disagree or present an alternative argument)

-Instigate (Present a new idea or open up a new line of enquiry into the discussion)

-Clarify (Ask questions to make things clearer and to check understanding) 

-Probe (Dig deeper and ask for evidence or justification of ideas)

-Summarise (Identify and recap the main ideas discussed) 

The progressive Talk Tactics can be found in the links above.

What can parents and carers do to support children to develop their oracy skills at home?

• Talk to your child! This can be about anything at all such as how their day was at school.

• In an age of mobile phones, computers and tablets, opportunities for parents/carers and children to talk to each other can be easily lost. Make a special time each day where any electronic devices are put away and the focus is on conversation instead - This could be on the walk to or from school or during meal times.

• Ask your child questions about what they say and encourage them to ask you questions too!

• Having regular conversations with your child in your home language is also very valuable in terms of developing your child’s oracy skills so please do not worry if your first language is not English.

Impact

We hope, that with oracy as a key driver to our curriculum, children are able to express themselves in a variety of contexts and can share their ideas; listen to those of others; build on ideas; challenge others respectfully and are willing to change their viewpoint.

We believe that oracy skills are crucial to children's success in school and in their life beyond.  We aim for all of our children to have proficient oracy skills and be able to use language to communicate confidently, fluently and articulately.