At Otley and Witnesham, we believe that oracy is a fundamental skill that underpins academic success, supports social and emotional development, and prepares our pupils for the challenges of the future.  We want our children to be effective communicators who can express their ideas confidently and engage meaningfully in discussions. 

Through the explicit teaching of oracy, we aim to develop the pupils’ language skills to help them find their voice whilst empowering them to speak effectively, express themselves confidently whilst listening and responding attentively. We believe that the art of speaking well and listening well should be woven together throughout our lessons as we harness and guide the children to be eloquent and concise communicators. We value all contributions and believe that it is important that each voice is heard. Within our schools, we have a culture of trust and respect where children feel confident that their views will be valued and listened to and as a result find their voice. Speaking and listening is embedded in our broad and balanced curriculum to deepen subject knowledge through dialogue and exploration, each year building on previous learning. Children also enjoy public speaking in performances, poetry recitals and debating events.

As children move through the school our vision is that children flourish academically and socially using oracy skills. With a clear progression of skills mapped out, children will learn to convey knowledge cohesively, comment on matters, solve problems, voice their views and have the ability to explain their thinking.

Oracy is a driving force for learning which is weaved into all aspects of the curriculum for purposeful talk. Pupils learn through talk and to talk; developing and deepening their subject knowledge and understanding through talk, which has been planned, designed, modelled, scaffolded and structured to enable them to learn effectively. The deliberate, explicit and systematic teaching of oracy across year groups and throughout the curriculum supports our children to make progress in the four strands of oracy outlined in the Oracy Framework. 

Our children will:

• Speak with confidence, clarity and eloquence.

• Recognise the importance of listening in conjunction with speaking.

• Be confident to express and justify their own opinions to others.

• Adapt their use of language for different purposes and audiences.

• Talk for a specific purpose e.g. to persuade or entertain

• Accurately use key vocabulary when talking.

• Sustain a logical argument, question, reason and respond to others appropriately following the ‘Talk Guidelines’ set up in each class.

• Be open minded and respect the contribution of others and to take on board their views.

• Confidently build on their peers' responses to articulate their reasons or to solve a problem

• Be given a range of opportunities to share their learning in engaging ways through presentations, discussions, storytelling, recitals, drama, poetry and debate.

Talk Tactics

It is our vision for children to use progressive Talk Tactics to come to build on and challenge ideas in a safe environment, understand others’ viewpoints and come to shared agreements. Talk Tactics are used in all lessons to encourage pupils to think strategically about their contributions to group talk. Providing pupils with roles to play in discussions helps to manage talk and encourages the development of certain speaking and listening skills. 

Groupings

Teachers use their understanding of different types of talk to plan for different groupings to enable children to take on a range of roles in discussions and to enhance learning opportunities throughout the curriculum.

Vocabulary 

Oracy supports vocabulary development, this is achieved by:

• Putting talk at the centre of teaching and learning so that children have the opportunities to hear and use new vocabulary in context and allows students the space to build confidence to speak with specificity in lessons.

• Prioritising vocabulary in planning by choosing which vocabulary to teach in each lesson - focussing on quality over quantity.

• Contextualising new vocabulary through talk - students are able to use newly learned vocabulary accurately in a given context. The process can be split between an ‘input phase’ and an ‘output phase’. During the input phase, students are introduced to new vocabulary and are given multiple opportunities to hear and begin experimenting with new language.  During the output phase, students are encouraged to use recently learned language independently in speech as they build towards word ownership. This process creates a depth of word knowledge as well as creativity with new vocabulary.

Empowering Every Child

We know that a strong command of language is the single greatest tool for social mobility and academic success. By embedding a consistent, high-impact approach to oracy across our entire curriculum, we ensure that every pupil leaves Otley & Witnesham as articulate, resilient and quietly confident individuals, ready for the next stage of their learning journey.

"Good talkers become great thinkers, and great thinkers become exceptional writers."