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Oracy

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Intent

Whole school vision statement: Every Voice Valued and Understood

At St Matthew’s, we aim to equip our learners with the skills to talk and listen effectively to one another. Oracy gives every child the opportunity to find their voice; to articulate  their ideas, thoughts and feelings clearly and coherently and develops understanding. Effective communication helps every child to fulfil their potential and flourish in their school life and beyond, regardless of their background. We endeavour to give every learner, under our provision, this opportunity.

Our curriculum will:

·        Increase children’s confidence

·        Improve academic outcomes

·        Foster wellbeing

·        Equip students to thrive in life beyond school

·        Narrow gaps

·        Promote social equity

 

Implementation

Our Oracy curriculum is underpinned by the Oracy Framework created by Voice 21. The Oracy   framework uses four vital strands; physical, linguistic, cognitive and social and emotional. Through a high quality Oracy education, students learn through talk and learn to talk. The use of carefully planned, modelled and scaffolded talk in the classroom heightens subject knowledge and understanding for our learners.  We will have:

  • Talk tactics and discussion guidelines in every classroom and the main hall.
     
  • Sentence stems - Our learners are encouraged to speak in full, coherent sentences when sharing their ideas and using spoken language. We have differentiated sentence stems which our learners have access to in their classrooms and are carefully used in teacher’s planning.
     
  • Oracy worships.
     
  • Opportunities for talk throughout the curriculum.
     
  • Teaching and learning will facilitate progression across all key stages within the talk strands of physical, cognitive, social and emotional and linguistic.
     
  • Children will be rewarded explicitly for oracy and will be able to assess their talk.

 

Oracy in the Early Years Foundation Stage

We use the ShREC model to scaffold talk in the Early Years Foundation Stage:  

Share attention

be at the child’s level. Pay attention to what they are focused on.

Respond

follow the child’s lead. Respond to their non-verbal and verbal communications.

Expand

Repeat what the child says and build on it.

Conversation

Have extended back and forth interactions. Give children time to listen, process and reply.

The ‘ShREC’ approach in practice | EEF

 

Impact:

  • Improved wellbeing
  • Better behaviour
  • Increased confidence in communication
  • Greater inclusivity for EAL students
  • Enhanced academic achievement

Oracy Lead: Brogan Parsons (updated May 2025)

Oracy Statement of Curriculum May 2025

Oracy Progression Document St. Christopher's Trust 2024 

Oracy on a Page May 2025

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