Oracy at Cale Green

What is Oracy?

Developing our children’s communication and language skills has long been a priority at Cale Green Primary School. Oracy is a powerful tool for learning and our recent work with Voice 21 has seen the culture of learning to talk and through talk, grow from strength to strength. 

By teaching children to become more effective speakers and listeners, we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. A proven route to social mobility, Oracy empowers all children to find their voice and succeed in school life and beyond.

Oracy at Cale Green: Our Vision

Oracy supports learning and educational outcomes but is so much more than that. Talk open doors - your voice is your identity. We want to practice and improve Oracy through a range of language experiences because communication skills are crucial and central to children’s learning and life. Engaging in quality interactions with others, where we can listen, question, challenge, build and express ideas, form the fundamental building blocks to pupil’s development. At Cale Green, we will ensure our children learn to see their voice as important, now and in the future; they will have the confidence to articulate themselves and be heard.

From the children themselves, this is why Oracy is important:

“Talk is important, your voice is important, listening is important, it helps you learn” (Reception)

 “You can disagree with your friends but in a kind way” (Year 1)

 “I have learnt to speak clearly and use the right words to help everyone understand” (Year 5)

The Oracy Framework

From Reception to Y6, we have introduced The Oracy Framework. This breaks down Oracy skills into different strands, allowing our children to grasp a deeper understanding of how we can develop and improve our speaking and listening skills. All classes have introduced ‘Discussion Guidelines’; co-constructed discussion rules that ensure everyone can speak, be heard and respected.

Talk Tactics

At Cale Green, we teach our children specific talk strategies to help them facilitate purposeful talk in the classroom. Moving from surface level talk to quality discussions is imperative for learning across all areas of the curriculum. For example, challenging the ideas of others, reasoning our opinions and, sometimes, being brave enough to disagree or change our minds!