Intent:

Through a high-quality oracy education at Earl Spencer Primary School, children will leave our school with ownership of a variety of vocabulary and be able to confidently communicate with a range of people in a range of contexts. Children will be able to use their voice to problem solve, negotiate, challenge or influence and will be able to build on discussions through the use of different skills such as clarification and challenge. They will feel heard and value the contributions of others.  These skills will support learning across the curriculum and prepare them for secondary school and beyond.

Implementation:

Through staff training, teachers have a clear understanding of the 4 strands of the oracy framework (physical, linguistic, cognitive and social and emotional). They understand that an education in oracy is the responsibility of every teacher and that a high quality oracy education is delivered when teachers and leaders meet the teacher and school benchmarks. Any staff training and subsequent actions always link to the oracy framework, the benchmarks or both.

Teachers know their children very well and carefully consider groupings when talking. are aware of the individual needs of children and any barriers that may be present. They set high expectations for speaking and listening within lessons and are aware of the individual needs of children including any barriers that may be present for some.

By following ‘Voicing Vocabulary’, staff plan which new vocabulary they will include in broader curriculum lessons and plan and use input activities to introduce it and output activities to monitor ownership of it. In addition to ‘Voicing Vocabulary’, children are also exposed to a variety of vocabulary through regular taught reading sessions and also in Phonics sessions in EYFS and KS1.

Teachers know the reasons for talk (for example to give instructions, analyse or influence) and scaffold children’s talk in these areas through the use of discussion guidelines and talk tactics. As a result, children are able to think strategically about their contributions to group talk and can, for example, build on, clarify or challenge others’ contributions. They are provided with sentence stems to help them articulate what they want to say and encouraged to use oral rehearsal to practice what they want to say or write across the curriculum. Teachers use blooms questioning to ensure children explore their ideas and to push their thinking on.

Outside of the classroom, children have the opportunity to apply their oracy skills in school plays, through school council and house captain elections and meetings and through being Parents’ Evening guides. On the playground there are young leaders and well being warriors who are able to nurture and support other children. On entering the class each morning, every child is greeted by an adult with a well being check in meaning they are able to communicate with an adult about how they might be feeling. Our senior leadership team and pastoral team use trauma informed approaches to understand what a child might be trying to say through their behavior. Our behaviour policy focusses on reflection time and restorative conversations with students. During this time children can apply some of the talk tactics they have learned to resolve conflict.

Impact:    

Children will be able to articulate their ideas and thought processes in a variety of ways across the curriculum leading to a deeper understanding. They will be able to communicate successfully with their peers and adults both inside and outside of the classroom and relationships between pupils will thrive because they will have the skills to overcome challenges they encounter.