What is Oracy at The Kennet Federation?

Oracy at The Kennet Federation is a pedagogical practice. It is the use of purposeful talk to support teaching and learning in all aspects of the curriculum. As communicators, Oracy underpins everything we do to set the children up for success. It is a vitally important skill as not only provides children with the skills to further their learning, but also to communicate their own thoughts and ideas. We view Oracy as an inclusive approach to learning and support children of all abilities to learn to communicate.

Intent                                                      

Oracy has always been at the forefront of our school improvement plan. We know language development is an area of key importance to our pupils.  We use this as our driving force to improve children’s spoken language and vocabulary to impact knowledge in all areas of the curriculum. Where children have different needs, steps will be taken to prevent these from becoming a barrier to access Oracy. 

We want to help children to develop a sense of identity, be able to express their own views on the world and to use talk to deepen their understanding of the curriculum. We also want children to have the skillset of agreeing, disagreeing and challenging other opinions with sensitivity and maturity. We strive for all children to be confident in expressing their own opinions and ideas in a respectful and supportive environment.

Implementation

From children’s earliest experiences of school, high levels of language are modelled to them to ensure all children are exposed to what good Oracy looks like. As a federation we are part of the Voice21 schools program. The training provided by Voice21 will give Oracy subject leaders the skills they need in order to equip all teachers with the knowledge of how to use Oracy in the classroom. Rather than teaching Oracy as standalone lessons, we will embed purposeful talk through all areas of the curriculum.

To implement Oracy across The Federation we will follow the following steps;

Build whole school awareness of Oracy

• Oracy will be celebrated through Oracy assemblies
• Enthusing children about Oracy through Oracy awards

Rolling out CPD to teachers

• Working with team/subject leaders to help them use Oracy most effectively within their team/subject
• Working with Voice 21 charity to sequence training delivered to staff

Providing support to teachers in curriculum planning

• Create lesson examples of embedding Oracy strategies in a lesson
• Create examples of using Oracy as one way of closed book assessment
• Teachers are given strategies to support learners with different needs to access Oracy

Ongoing review to monitor progress 

• Pupil sampling to assess children’s understanding of Oracy and how it is being implemented in the classroom
• Using Voice21 pupil and staff surveys to assess attitudes towards Oracy

Impact

Following the implementation of Oracy at The Kennet Federation, we expect to see the impact in the following areas;

• Physical: Children will have the skills to speak confidently in a range of contexts. The will be able to adapt their fluency and pace of speaking, tone of voice and voice projection to the type of talk they are taking part in.
• Linguistic: Children will be making appropriate and ambitious vocabulary choices in their talk alongside time to practice new words they learn. In different subject areas they will use the appropriate technical vocabulary they have been taught.
• Cognitive: Children talk with confidence about their current and past learning experience. Through using exploratory talk, children are able to seek information, clarify through questioning and give reasons to support their views.  
• Social and emotional: Children will independently manage interactions with their peers and be able to solve problems collaboratively. They will be confident in speaking to a range of different people within the school, and feel that their voice is valued.