Victoria Road Primary School
Oracy
Oracy at VRPS
Our Trust are currently working with Voice 21, the UK’s Oracy Education Charity who work with teachers and schools across the country to ensure every child receives a high quality Oracy education.
VISION
Research shows that oracy provides a strong prediction of educational and life outcomes for children. At Victoria Road Primary School, we have decided to develop a high quality oracy education for our pupils. We know that:
Oracy supports learning – including developing creativity and critical thinking in pupils.
Oracy is vital for social mobility – supporting children’s ability to fulfil their potential in later life.
Oracy is good for social and emotional learning – helping children who may struggle to work with or play well with others.
Oracy opens doors to opportunity – extracurricular activities such as debating, youth parliament and volunteering bring a wide variety of benefits and opportunity.
Oracy is empowering - giving children the skills to develop a ‘voice’ and speak out about things that matter to them.
(NACE – March 2018)
INTENT
We are working to:
Create momentum within our school and community to raise awareness of the value of oracy
Build a whole school culture of talk, across the curriculum and beyond the classroom.
Strengthen classroom practice – ensuring all teachers are confident in using oracy as a core pedagogy and drawing upon evidence-based practical classroom activities.
Continuously improve our practice using the latest research and evidence on the impact of oracy
IMPLEMENTATION
In order to teach effective oracy skills across the curriculum, we will be using the oracy framework to understand the physical, linguistic, cognitive, and social and emotional skills that enable successful discussion, inspiring speech and effective communication. Key oracy skills are taught throughout the whole curriculum. Objectives are progressive and sequential; teaching the children the skills to confidently and effectively use the spoken language for educational progress, and for life in general.
The school uses a variety of teaching and learning approaches to teach oracy skills across the curriculum, including:
Providing opportunities for drama and role-play.
Providing opportunities for children to develop their listening skills through conversation.
Promoting small group and class discussions on specific topics/areas of the curriculum.
Providing opportunities to speak in front of a larger audience, for example during an assembly.
Giving the children the opportunity to speak to unfamiliar people with a real purpose.
Allowing the children to participate in ‘show and tell’ sessions.
Playing a range of games with the children to encourage effective use of oracy skills.
Providing opportunities for the children to become a storyteller for an authentic audience.
Providing opportunities for the children to present to an audience, chair a discussion and hold class meetings.
Encouraging the children to talk for a specific purpose, e.g. to persuade or to entertain.
Encouraging children to work in groups to collaboratively solve a problem.
Encouraging class and group debates and providing opportunities for children to make speeches in front of an audience.
ASSESSMENT
In order to assess the children’s oracy skills, staff will informally assess the children’s progress against the oracy progression framework - ensuring all pupils have the opportunity to develop the appropriate skills and vocabulary expected of them; whilst providing feedback, which will enable each child to develop their skills further.
MONITORING
Monitoring takes place regularly through lesson observations and through talking to the children – ensuring they enjoy each subject and can recall the key knowledge and skills of what they have been taught.
IMPACT
We want every child to be able to:
- Speak in every lesson
- Understand their ‘voice’ and how to use it in different circumstances and for different purposes
- Engage positively with oracy
- Be part of a strong oracy community, using oracy to connect to others
- Transfer oracy skills across the curriculum
- Develop oracy skills which will help to enrich their life