Oracy

Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language. 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.

We encourage children to articulate their ideas and opinions, and for the children to know that their voice has value and should be heard.  We aim to develop the children’s communication skills throughout all areas of the curriculum, thus improving their well-being, self-esteem and confidence.

At Marion Richardson, we carefully plan for and promote speaking and listening opportunities throughout each school day. In order to achieve an oracy rich learning environment, we expect our children to contribute during paired, group and class discussions and we scaffold this by providing sentence stems, word banks and ensuring that that our staff provide excellent models of spoken language. Children are encouraged to actively listen to each other: building on what others say; asking for clarity; or politely disagreeing. Each class has a set of discussion guidelines which have been created by the class and are clearly displayed. Children must adhere to the guidelines they have set, in order to have meaningful and productive discussions. Explorative talk is an important part of their learning, as is the opportunity for presentational talk, which enables the children to deepen and showcase their understanding. Assemblies now incorporate more discussion opportunities- books, video clips, presentations are shared, and the children are encouraged to discuss their ideas in pairs or trios and share their views, giving reasons for their ideas and opinions. Our agreed assembly discussion guidelines enable purposeful talk and careful listening whilst working in a larger group.

Children who have clearly worked hard to improve their speaking and listening skills are awarded our Oracy Stars of the Month Certificates during our celebration assemblies. Class assemblies, Disney productions and our Leavers shows allow our children the chance to showcase their abilities to project their voice, speak with clarity and intonation, with a clear awareness of their audience, whilst working collaboratively as a team.