Oracy at St Nicholas
At St. Nicholas, we are part of the Voice 21 programme which aims to develop our pupils’ oracy skills. Voice 21 is a national oracy education charity who aim to transform the learning and life chances of young people through talk so that all children can use their voice for success in school and in life.
Oracy is essential for boosting students' academic confidence across subjects. Having an oracy-rich classroom where students are given the space to explore their ideas with their peers can make them feel more confident in their own ideas as well as their academic performance.
What is oracy and why is it important?
We believe that oracy is a powerful tool for learning; by teaching pupils to become more effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. It is also a route to social mobility, empowering all pupils to find their voice to succeed in school and life. Through a high quality oracy education students learn through talk and to talk. This is when they develop and deepen their subject knowledge and understanding through talk in the classroom, which has been planned, designed, modelled, scaffolded and structured to enable them to learn the skills needed to talk effectively
Some of the work which has been completed in classes so far includes:
- All children have agreed their 'Discussion Guidelines' which sets out how everyone in the class (including the adults) will work together to ensure that everyone has a voice and that their contributions are valued.
- We have produced Superheroes for each strand of the 'Oracy Framework' and will be sharing these with the children so that in each key stage they know what oracy skills they are working towards.
- Children are encouraged to use 'Talk Tactics' to support them in developing their oracy skills across the curriculum. This is further supported by the use of sentence stems and key vocabulary in lessons.
