Avonwood Oracy Policy: Click Here
Oracy Leads: Mrs King and Mrs Turner
Oracy Senior Leadership Team Link: Mr Jackson-Taylor
Avonwood Oracy Strands Progression Map: Click Here
At Avonwood Primary School, we believe spoken language to be fundamental to the achievement of our pupils. In collaboration with Voice 21, we aim to develop children’s oracy skills to enhance their speaking and listening.
We see oracy (the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language) as a powerful tool for learning and believe that by teaching students to become more effective speakers and listeners, we will be empowering them to not only understand themselves but also each other and the world around them.
Oracy is central to all learning and by using the Oracy Framework (provided by Voice 21), we can address the four key strands which enable successful discussion, inspiring speech and effective communication:
When carefully planned and executed, discussion is a powerful tool for learning. During a discussion, students are actively involved in the development of their own knowledge and must constantly re-evaluate their position in relation to others. At Avonwood, we ensure that opportunities for talk are regular, purposeful, appropriately pitched and thoroughly planned to ensure that children are well prepared to meet expectations. Through using a variety of group protocols, we ensure that everyone in the group has the chance to have their say.
We establish and model ambitious and challenging norms for talk, ensuring that children understand the expectations for talk within our classrooms. Talk Tactics are used in lessons to encourage pupils to think strategically about their contributions to group talk.
We value oracy as an integral part of children’s education. At Avonwood, we also believe the benefits of oracy skills go far beyond academic achievement and employability; they boost a range of social, emotional, and interpersonal skills, including self-confidence, self-awareness, resilience, and empathy.
By the time that our children leave Avonwood Primary School, we want them to be able to possess the oracy skills to support them in their next stage of education and beyond.
I like oracy because it makes me feel more positive about talking.
Oracy has helped me build up my confidence at speaking clearer.
It’s helped me be braver when I give ideas.
I like oracy because it can help me with my emotion to speak to people.
Now I listen to my partner, and I can ask them questions.
Oracy is all about talking to each other and making ideas and building on them. I think it's quite fun and it's a way of learning how to talk to people and it can help when I'm older.
Oracy is useful when people have something to say. You can't read their mind so they can tell you. There are different ways they can tell you – they can build on it and you can clarify to ask what they mean. You can also probe to get them to explain it a bit more. It's helped me to speak out, because normally I hold it in and just listen."
Oracy normally helps me when I am speaking because sometimes, I spoke like an alien! I think the good thing is it helps people talk to each other and with people more often. It makes people clearer when they speak."
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