Grangehurst Primary School

Oracy is the ability to learn to talk and learn through talk, expressing themselves fluently and effectively through spoken language.

Oracy is vital in a child’s education as it supports their cognitive development, enhances their ability to reason and builds their confidence to communicate. By fostering and weaving oracy into our classrooms, we are supporting children to articulate their ideas, listen actively and engage in respectful discussions.

We are a Voice 21 school, using this to weave oracy into our school curriculum to provide pupils with the skills they need to succeed in education and life.

The importance of oracy

By teaching children the skills of speaking and listening we are providing them with the toolkit to better understand the world around them. 

• Oracy plays a vital role in laying the foundations for reading and writing
• Children with strong communication skills, when leaving school, are more likely to find employment
• It empowers children to build successful relationships and understand their voice has value

We strive to put oracy at the heart of our teaching and learning, allowing children to express, learn and reflect through talking opportunities.

Our vision for Oracy at Grangehurst Primary School

At Grangehurst we are committed to providing children with the skills and confidence to speak freely but politely and respectfully. Our aim is for children to always feel heard and be able to advocate for themselves. We know that spoken language skills are one of the strongest predictors in a child’s future life chances, therefore we strive to provide them with a toolkit of oracy skills for a bright future.

Oracy in the classroom

Speaking and listening is woven throughout the curriculum to enhance children’s oracy skills and allow them to learn through talk. We use oracy to unlock learning, challenging each other’s ideas and build on what knowledge we already have.

The national curriculum identify the importance of spoken language in a child’s development as they reflect the importance that it has on children’s cognitive, social and linguistic skills.

At Grangehurst we plan and support spoken language opportunities into our curriculum.

Discussion guidelines

Each class collaboratively decide on 3-5 ‘rules’ that they feel reflect what they need to focus on to have a positive discussion.

Listening ladder

We have a listening ladder to teach children the skills of how to effectively listen. We praise and identify when this is being shown in the classroom.

Talk tactics

As teachers, we model good talk tactics to promote spoken language further. We do this by building on what another person has said, respectfully challenge them, probe further by asking questions to dig deeper or instigate a conversation. We encourage children to use talk tactics in their discussions with each other to develop meaningful conversations and discussions.

Groupings

We use a range of different groupings to support different types of talk in the classroom.

Sentence stems

Within planning, we ensure spoken language opportunities are planned for to allow children to verbally practise their sentence. We provide sentence stems to support children’s structure in spoken language

Grangehurst Gossip

Talk at mealtimes plays a crucial role in children’s social, emotional and language development. These moments provide a natural setting for conversation, therefore we want to harness this time to allow children to practise listening, turn-taking and expressing their thoughts in a relaxed environment. Therefore, we introduced ‘Grangehurst Gossip’. Each day, whilst the children eat their lunch, there is a talking point, which is guided and supported by an adult.