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Oracy
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Oracy is the ability for pupils to articulate ideas and develop understanding and engagement with others through spoken language. It permits students to become effective speakers and listeners, whilst deepening their subject knowledge and understanding through carefully planned, designed, modelled and scaffolded talking opportunities across the curriculum. At Academy 360, we know that teaching oracy improves academic outcomes, through developing skills to think critically, reason together and have the vocabulary to express one’s knowledge and understanding. We also value the power of oracy education in increasing the confidence and wellbeing of our pupils, empowering them with the belief that their voice has value and developing the ability to articulate thoughts that others will listen and respond to. Furthermore, oracy skills are pivotal for social mobility, equipping children to thrive in life beyond school and supporting them to progress and access employment.
Guidance and Expectations for Oracy at Academy 360
Oracy is embedded across our curriculum and from EYFS to Year 6, children are given opportunities to develop oracy skills and build their confidence in talk for formal and informal situations, both inside and outside the classroom.
Lessons are talk-rich and opportunities for partner and group talk are carefully built into each lesson plan. Teachers use targeted questioning and assessment for learning tools, which ensure all children are able to fully participate and every voice is valued. Subject specific vocabulary is provided in lesson plans in order to support children in working on collaborative projects, group discussion and debate or oral presentations. Every classroom also promotes subject-specific vocabulary acquisition through displaying key vocabulary on working walls and actively encouraging children to use these keywords in their verbal communication.
A range of purposeful opportunities are used across the curriculum to encourage learning through talk and learning to talk including:
- Group and partner work
- Role play and hot seating
- Discussions and debates
- Presentations
- Exploring a text through performance
Primary
Oracy Position Statement
At Academy 360 we believe that oracy skills are important for contributing to purposeful discussion, advocating for your point of view and public speaking. Like literacy and numeracy, oracy is teachable and a foundational skill for learning, something that you will find in all aspects of our broad and balanced curriculum. It is how we articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language and key to supporting children with voicing their opinion, presenting their thoughts and ideas and gives them confidence as they move through school to the wider world. Oracy means learning to talk, and learning through talk, to improve a student’s ability to communicate effectively.
How is Oracy taught in the curriculum?
Like literacy and numeracy, oracy is teachable and a foundational skill for learning. We ensure that oracy is taught across a broad and balanced curriculum, using the Voice21 programme to help us transform teaching and learning and enable all students to access and benefit from a high-quality oracy education.
Voice 21 is a framework for oracy that enables staff to teach using oracy strategies across the school, creating opportunities for every child to talk and listen in every lesson. Our aim as a school is to elevate speaking to the same status as reading and writing.
As a part of high-quality oracy education, students should learn both to talk and through talk, deepening their subject knowledge and understanding through classroom talk which has been planned, structured, and scaffolded to enable students to learn skills needed to talk effectively. The promotion of oracy skills will be evident in all areas of the curriculum, from the core subjects like English and Maths to the foundation subjects including Science, History and even PE, ensuring that our children receive the opportunity to voice their thoughts, opinions and ideas.
Oracy links to the community and home
Being part of a community provides us with a sense of belonging, creating opportunities for us to connect and share, often through speaking and listening; it is central to our human experience and important to us at Academy 360.
One of our first experiences of community is in the school classroom. In order to feel valued and respected, students must feel that their voices are important, that they are listened to and understood. At Academy 360, we want our children to be able to have the speaking and listening skills required to take them through school and into the wider world. The Voice 21 program helps to ensure that there are opportunities for the children to learn these skills and showcase them in, not only their school community, but also the wider community, in assemblies and on educational trips and visits.
Curriculum priorities for 2024 - 25
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Staff and students to have a good knowledge of the oracy framework
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Develop and improve children’s oracy skills through explicit oracy teaching
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See an improvement of oracy skills across the curriculum
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Continued professional development (CPD) for staff in using and implementing the Voice 21 initiative
Please click the link below to view the Oracy Progression Overview.