ORACY
“Mankind's greatest achievements have comeabout by talking, and it's greatest failures by not talking. " - Stephen Hawking
INTENT
At Prince Albert School, we recognise the importance of spoken language in building confident and articulate communicators. Our intent is for all children, regardless of their starting points, to become confident communicators who feel valued, heard, and confident in expressing themselves. We understand that the deliberate and explicit teaching of oracy has a measurable impact on academic attainment. Therefore, we are committed to embedding oracy across the curriculum, ensuring that all children are exposed to talk-rich environments conducive to their development.
Our pupils will learn the nuances of effective communication, including tone, pace, and body language, ensuring they can engage with different audiences and purposes. At Prince Albert School, students experience a range of talking styles – from exploratory talk to presentational talk. Through our commitment to nurturing oracy skills, we are equipping our pupils with the tools and abilities needed to navigate and thrive in an increasingly complex world. We are dedicated to preparing our pupils with the oratory skills they will need to be successful in all areas of life, unlocking their potential to be the articulate and persuasive leaders of tomorrow.
IMPLEMENTATION
Oracy is embedded across the curriculum. We ensure that subject specific vocabulary is explicitly taught. Our teachers employ innovative instructional approaches, such as talk-based inquiry, sentence stems, and collaborative projects, to foster regular opportunities for pupils to experience a range of talking styles – from exploratory talk to presentational talk. Our pupils participate in various activities such as discussions, presentations, performances, role play, and debates, allowing them to develop their communication skills across different contexts.
Drawing on research-based strategies, we have established timetabled oracy lessons dedicated to the explicit teaching of oracy. Our units are designed based on guidance from the Voice 21 framework,focusing on physical, linguistic,cognitive, and social-emotional aspects of spoken language. Key skills and knowledge have been carefully mapped across the school to ensure that learning is sequential and progressive. These lessons are designed to build foundational communication skills in early years, which then gradually progress to incorporate more complex oracy practices, including debates, presentations, and group discussions. Although we firmly uphold that oracy is a cross-curricular responsibility, we wanted to provide teachers and pupils with the time and space to develop oracy skills. By investing time into the explicit teaching of oracy, the skills are embedded into the pupil’s long-term memory and are used with automaticity. To enhance our provision further, we have established a membership with Voice 21, an organisation dedicated to promoting oracy in schools. Through this collaboration, our subject leader receives specialised training and support, ensuring that our oracy curriculum is both comprehensive and innovative. All staff have received training to develop their subject knowledge of oracy, with access to ongoing professional development opportunities. This membership allows us to implement best practices in oracy education, providing our pupils with the highest quality learning experiences.
IMPACT
At Prince Albert School, the impact of our dedicated oracy curriculum is visible in our pupils’ growing confidence, ability to articulate ideas, and engagement across all areas of learning.Through the explicit teaching of oracy, children become proficient in adapting their speech for different contexts, audiences, and purposes, equipping them with skills that extend beyond the classroom. We see pupils demonstrating improved listening and response skills, as well as enhanced critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, as they learn to reason, question, and debate.
Our focus on embedding oracy into long-term memory means that these skills are not only immediately beneficial but are also tools that pupils carry with them, aiding their academic progress and personal development. By fostering confident communicators who feel valued and heard, we prepare our students to thrive in their future academic,social, and professional lives, positioning them as articulate leaders and empathetic citizens. Our partnership with Voice 21 allows us to continually assess and refine our approach, ensuring that our oracy provision remains impactful, relevant, and rooted in the latest educational research.