Oracy

'Reading and writing float on a sea of talk' -  J. Britton 

What is Oracy?

Oracy is the important skill of speaking, listening, and presenting. It is about communication, being able to express yourself in an effective manner and appropriately according to the context. 

This is a key life skill, used throughout our lives in a wide range of situations. Therefore, it is important that children are taught oracy skills in an effective and direct way. 

We teach this through half-termly, oracy-based projects throughout KS1 and KS2. During these projects, children are given the opportunity to develop these skills over a range of tasks and opportunities. This project will be linked to the wider curriculum and in KS2, these projects will involve discrete lessons on oracy skills. Oracy is carefully planned throughout our curriculum, ensuring children have opportunities to learn to talk and talk to learn. 

Within the Classroom

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. 

Examples of oracy skill development can be seen in the curriculum through:

• exploratory talk

• interactive/negotiation

• recitation

• debate and persuasion

• building understanding

• to inform/teach  

• entertainment and expression

Other Opportunities

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, allowing all children to engage and have their voice heard. 

• Presentations on a specific subjects, in a variety of lessons and to a wide range of audiences. 

• Discussions within lessons.

• 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 texts through performance – not just re-enacting what actually happens in the book, but also acting out what characters might do or say in a particular situation or to predict the next scenes. 

• Debates, within small groups or amongst the whole class.

• Presentations in assemblies, attended by the rest of the school and often parents.

• School council meetings

• Group work, pairs or small groups where communication is highlighted as an important skill. 

• Role play, putting themselves in the role of others.