Oracy Curriculum
Oracy Curriculum at St. George’s Academy
Intent
At St. George’s Academy we believe that oracy is a powerful tool for learning. By teaching children to become effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. Oracy is also a route to social mobility, empowering all children to find their voice to succeed in school and life.
Through the high-quality oracy curriculum, developed by our oracy team, children learn through talk and to talk. All staff promote a culture of high-quality oracy where the importance of every child’s voice is recognised and celebrated. Our subject leaders ensure that children develop and deepen their subject knowledge and understanding through talk in the classroom, which has been planned, designed, modelled, scaffolded and structured to enable children to learn the skills needed to talk effectively.
Implementation
At St. George’s Academy we have adopted the Framework for Oracy which breaks down the teaching of speaking and listening into four strands: Physical, Cognitive, Linguistic and Social and Emotional.
We promote classrooms rich in talk, in which questions are planned, peer conversations are modelled and scaffolded and the teacher uses talk skilfully to develop thinking. 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 in and outside the classroom. We have an embedded oracy curriculum ensuring the children have an opportunity to practice a variety of types of talk and practise the skills needed for different oracy outcomes:
- exploratory talk
- interactive/negotiation
- recitation
- debate and persuasion
- building understanding
- to inform/teach
- entertainment and expression
The deliberate, explicit and systematic teaching of oracy across the school and throughout the curriculum will support our children to make progress in the four strands of oracy. A range of purposeful opportunities are used to encourage learning through talk and learning to talk, including:
- Setting ground rules for speaking and listening in class, such as putting your hand up before speaking, waiting to be chosen, and not interrupting each other. Please see our Whole School Discussion Guidelines.
- Carefully organised group work in a range of formats; Think-Pair-Share, Talking Threes and the Discussion Doughnut.
- Hot seating: a drama technique where one child sits in the ‘hot seat,’ and the other children ask them questions to answer in character.
- Exploring a text through performance. This does not just simply involve re-enacting what actually happens in the text, but also includes acting out what characters might do or say in a particular situation.
- Debates, with one group of pupils for and another against a certain topic or question.
- Child-led assemblies e.g. Harvest, attended by the rest of the school and often parents.
- School council meetings, where council members collect questions and concerns from other pupils and present them to their fellow councillors and teachers.
- Role play, where children pretend to be someone else or pretend to be in a specific situation that they are not actually in at the time
Impact
Oracy skills will be assessed using the Oracy Framework. Teachers and Senior Leaders can use the progression statements from the Oracy Progression Map to monitor progress and attainment. Each year group has oracy objectives which build on and extend from the previous year ensuring progression as the children move through the school. Through the teaching of oracy, children will be able to:
- Speak fluently, with confidence and clarity in front of an audience including talking in full sentences.
- Explore ideas through talk.
- Deliberately select gestures that support the delivery of ideas e.g. gesturing towards someone if referencing their idea.
- Recognise the value of listening to what others say.
- Use conjunctions to organise and sequence their ideas.
- Adapt how they speak in different situations according to the audience, including using Standard English.
- Value their own opinions and be able to express them to others.
- Begin to reflect on their oracy skills and identify areas of strength and areas to improve.
- Ask questions to find out more about a subject.
- Respond appropriately to what others say, challenge each other’s opinions and develop their own reasoned arguments.
- Be open-minded, value the contribution of others and take account of their views.
- Appreciate the diversity of languages, dialects and accents in the school.
- Consider the impact of their words on others when giving feedback.
- Share their learning in an engaging, informative way through formal presentations.
