Oracy

At the heart of the school’s approach to teaching and learning is a strong commitment to oracy – the skill of speaking and listening with confidence, clarity and understanding. Oracy equips pupils with the ability to articulate their ideas, deepen their thinking and engage positively with others. These skills are essential not only for the classroom, but also for their future lives.

What Is Oracy?

Oracy is the ability to express thoughts fluently, listen actively and communicate effectively. It encompasses the skills needed to talk, including both exploratory talk (to develop ideas and learn) and presentational talk (to communicate with an audience). The school uses the Voice 21 Oracy Framework to support progression across year groups and to ensure pupils learn how to talk like experts across different subjects.

Why Oracy Matters

The school teaches oracy explicitly because strong communication skills open doors. Oracy helps pupils to:

• Build lifelong communication skills
• Succeed in future education and employment
• Develop confidence and support positive mental health
• Bridge the attainment gap for disadvantaged pupils
• Access a curriculum that values understanding as well as knowledge

By teaching oracy, the school ensures every pupil has a voice and the tools to use it well.

How Oracy Is Taught

Oracy is embedded across all subjects through:

1. The Oracy Framework – Learning to Talk

Teachers use the Voice 21 framework to build pupils’ skills in four key strands:
Physical, Linguistic, Cognitive and Social & Emotional.
These elements are explicitly taught, practised and celebrated.

2. Classroom Climate – Learning Through Talk

Classrooms are set up as talk-rich environments using:

• Discussion guidelines created and signed by pupils
• Groupings that promote effective collaboration
• Talk detectives to observe speaking and listening skills
• Talk protocols such as thumbs in, pass and go and chaired discussions
• Sentence stems and talk tactics to support high-quality conversations
• Clear actions for pupils to agree, challenge and build on contributions

This consistent approach ensures every pupil has opportunities to speak, listen and reflect.

3. Activities That Encourage High-Quality Talk

Teachers use a wide range of oracy-led activities, including:

• Harkness discussions
• Concept cartoons
• Would you rather…?
• Always / sometimes / never reasoning tasks
• Ranking and comparing sources
• Picture stimuli
• Fed-in facts discussions

These activities encourage depth, reasoning and curiosity.

4. Support for Pupils With Speech Language and Communication Needs

Oracy is made accessible to all pupils through supportive strategies such as:

• Slower pace and thinking time
• Concrete and visual aids
• Shorter sentences and simplified language
• Regular check-ins
• Acknowledging and valuing every idea

The aim is for every pupil to communicate confidently in a way that works for them.

High Expectations for Oracy Teaching

Teachers are guided by the Voice 21 Oracy Teacher Benchmarks, ensuring that oracy is:

• Valued in every classroom
• Explicitly taught
• Woven into learning across the curriculum
• Regularly assessed and celebrated