At Beckstone Primary School, our aim in spoken language is to provide a sound foundation for the development of oracy skills from discussion to poetry and verbal feedback to talk for presentational purposes. At the heart of good oracy is a dialogic classroom. Our classrooms are rich in talk, from effective questioning to constructive peer discussions and teachers use talk skillfully to develop and encourage critical thinking.
At Beckstone Primary School, our aim in spoken language is to provide a sound foundation for the development of oracy skills from discussion to poetry and verbal feedback to talk for presentational purposes. At the heart of good oracy is a dialogic classroom. Our classrooms are rich in talk, from effective questioning to constructive peer discussions and teachers use talk skillfully to develop and encourage critical thinking.
We, at Beckstone Primary School, recognise how vital spoken language skills are for children and we want to equip them with the tools they need to be heard, not just in school, but in their future career and life. Our oracy curriculum will enable children to:
Our school curriculum is rich in oracy opportunities:
Maths - Through maths mastery curriculum, our children learn how to explain and demonstrate their reasoning. They use peer coaching to articulate understanding and teach others.
Writing - Use of talk scaffolds and sentence starters provides our children with frameworks on which to base their discussion prior to writing. They effetivelt use Talk Partners to share ideas and clarify their thinking. Our school marking process allows children to discuss their writing openly with their teacher and peers. They can then act immediately on advice given and this cultivates a sense of collaboration and shared purpose.
Reading - Guided Reading takes place in KS2 classes. Talk scaffolds are used to encourage deeper thinking and more open ended discussion. Chidlren work in small groups in order to facilitate lively and constructive discussion about what they have read. They learn to take turns, listen and respond to the speaker as well as sharing their own views.
Through all curriculum areas, planning ensures that children work in different groups and pairings. The Innovate and Express stages of our Cornerstones curriculum are designed to give children opportunities to apply their understanding whilst collaborating to complete tasks and often they present their evaluations to each other. They peer assess their work, feeding back positives and next steps to each other, learning how to sensitively and honestly appraise each other’s work.
Through all curriculum areas, planning ensures that children work in different groups and pairings. The Innovate and Express stages of our Cornerstones curriculum are designed to give children opportunities to apply their understanding whilst collaborating to complete tasks and often they present their evaluations to each other. They peer assess their work, feeding back positives and next steps to each other, learning how to sensitively and honestly appraise each other’s work.
Pupil Voice - At Beckstone Primary School, we have a half termly School Council meetings, a B.I.G. group, and Bus and Playground Buddies. All these groups of children lead talk, explain and use mediation skills where necessary to support each other.
In EYFS, Communication and Language is a key area in the Early Learning goals. At the start of the topic, the children are inspired to begin to predict and discuss their learning. The children love to present, discuss and reflect upon their learning with adults and each other. Developing Communication and Language underpins all planning and delivery of the Early Year curriculum.
Key teachers in EYFS and KS1 are trained in Nuffield Language Intervention and Talk Boost. All staff from KS1 through KS2 have taken part in Oracy training led by Voice 21 and are currently using that training to continue to refine and develop oracy across school.
To widen our oracy provision even further, we love to share poetry with the children and give it the high profile it deserves. To celebrate this, hold an “Off By Heart” poetry competition twice a year.
The children take part in a choral performance where they learn and perform a poem as a class. The class choose their own poem and add actions and drama to the piece. The school all watch each other and choose their favourite performance using judging criteria based on oracy guidelines.
In Summer Term, there is an individual competition. All the children learn a poem of their choice independently and those who want to perform it to the class. The winner is chosen and they go on to represent their class in the final performance.
Across their time in school, the children will learn fourteen poems, which they should remember for a long time to come.
The impact oracy has on our children is clear to see. Our children are confident speakers and they embrace opportunities to speak whether it be in the classroom, in assembly, in front of a panel of governors or in front of parents.
The proof of the oracy learning that has taken place is heard in the voices of the children that we teach. It will be heard when listening to them recite a poem, watching them turn-take in a group discussion, felt through the questions they ask and the attentiveness with which they listen.
