Oracy In The Curriculum

Oracy Intent at St Leonards

At St Leonards CE Primary Academy, oracy is threaded throughout our aspirational curriculum. There is a shared understanding that oracy skills are fundamental both when children are learners at school and in their future lives, as these vital skills are closely linked to cultural capital. We aim to equip children with the skills to be confident and fluent speakers, who are able to use appropriate vocabulary and build on the ideas of others while speaking with expression and in an appropriate tone and pace. At St Leonards, we teach oracy both through our ambitious curriculum and through extended and enrichment activities such as a range of clubs, Forest School, lunch times and through our inclusive ethos in the school.

Pupil voice groups such as School Council, Faith Council and Reading Ambassadors also promote the ethos of oracy within the school, while opportunities such as year group productions, assemblies, visiting speakers, topic events and participation in local events also support the wealth of experiences available to our children.

Within our school, we recognise that there are key factors that oracy contributes to. These are:

• Greater attainment at KS2 and beyond
• Closes the attainment gap for disadvantaged children
• Promotes positive child development
• Benefits debating skills
• Benefits personal and social skills
• Identifies early language delays
• Helps employability
• Promotes citizenship skills

Our Curriculum

The National Curriculum states that all pupils ‘use discussion in order to learn; they should be able to elaborate and explain clearly their understanding and ideas’ and ‘are competent in the arts of speaking and listening, making formal presentations, demonstrating to others and participating in debate.’ (National Curriculum, 2014.)

Our curriculum ensures that lessons are rich in talk, with children having a wealth of opportunities to deepen their thinking and debating skills using a range of activities to prompt discussion and promote deeper talk.

Implementation

At St Leonards CE Primary, we use the oracy framework that was developed by The University of Cambridge and Voice 21. This framework breaks oracy into four strands: