Oracy

Oracy at Inspire Academy

Oracy gives every child the opportunity to find their voice; Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language.

In our classrooms, this requires both learning to and through talk; providing students with a range of opportunities to develop their understanding and reasoning through talk; whilst ensuring they are taught the Oracy skills needed to do this effectively.

We refer to The Oracy Skills Framework (OSF) which has been devised by Oracy Cambridge and Voice 21. The framework provides a structure through which we can understand what constitutes good speaking and listening in different contexts. It breaks down the skills within Oracy into four distinct but interlinked strands: physical, linguistic, cognitive and social & emotional.

At Inspire Academy, speaking is at the heart of all learning and Oracy is nurtured by everyday interactions and is visible, showcased and celebrated throughout school life. We create opportunities for pupils to find and use their voice regularly and our pupils know that their voices are important and they need to be heard.

Oracy Ground Rules

Each key stage has a set of ‘ground rules’ which help to maintain a safe, effective and respectful environment for talk within our school.

These guidelines are broken into four strands and link with the Oracy Framework skills; the physical, linguistic, cognitive and social/emotional skills that enable successful discussion, inspiring speech and effective communication.

– Listening

– Using your voice

– Vocabulary

– Engaging in group discussions

Talk Tokens

At Inspire Academy our pupils use ‘talk tokens’ to support their discussions and ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to speak. We encourage exploratory talk where everyone’s viewpoint is considered, opinions are justified with reasons and decisions are made together. Pupils engage critically but constructively with each other’s ideas and pupils invite one another to contribute, asking for explanations, reasons and elaboration. Our pupils also listen and respond to one another, continuing the discussion until their group can agree on a joint decision. Pupils also

have the opportunity to be ‘Talk Detectives’ within their classroom during group discussions.

Oracy in our Curriculum

A range of purposeful opportunities are used across the curriculum to encourage learning through talk and learning to talk, including:

• Presentations

• Discussions / Debates

• Hot Seating / Role Play

• Exploring a Text through Performance

• Collaborative discussions around maths reasoning

• Group and Partner Work

Our pupils also have further opportunities to develop their Oracy skills outside of the classroom, through class productions and assemblies as well as extra-curricular clubs, trips and visits.

The Big Debate

Every half term each year group has a presentation or a debate, this is focused around their current topic and is presented to the whole class.