Oracy is a key to the curriculum at Buckingham Primary Academy. Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language. In school, oracy is a powerful tool for learning; by teaching students to become more effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. 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.
Equipping our pupils with the knowledge of oracy is central to our curriculum design. The deliberate, explicit and systematic teaching of oracy across phases and throughout our curriculum supports children and young people to make progress in the four strands of oracy outlined in the Oracy Framework. The four strands of oracy: physical, linguistic, cognitive and social and emotional, enable pupils to experience a talk-rich curriculum. Vocabulary development, effective groupings and opportunities for presentational talk ensure pupils gain essential communication skills within their curriculum model. Exploratory talk is now well-established in all lessons, which leads to purposeful presentational talk across the curriculum.
Oracy
The Oracy Framework
As a school working with the Voice 21 project, Buckingham Primary Academy uses The Oracy Framework as a tool to structure our oracy curriculum. The Oracy Framework, devised by Voice 21 and Oracy Cambridge, provides a structure through which we can understand what constitutes good speaking and listening in different contexts. It breaks down the skills within oracy into four distinct but interlinked strands: physical, linguistic, cognitive and social & emotional.
Progression:
EYFS
In EYFS we introduce the four strands – physical, linguistic, cognitive and social & emotional – and set one core oracy objective for each that gets to the root of each Framework strand. At this stage we put the emphasis on students’ fundamental oracy skills such as speaking loud enough to be heard, beginning to join ideas together, asking questions and taking turns.
KS1
For our Key Stage 1 we build on the ideas introduced in EYFS and have two or three interlinked objectives for each strand. Each objective is slightly more complex than the previous key stage and introduces more sophisticated vocabulary. At this stage we put the emphasis on beginning to have more self and audience awareness, considering which language is appropriate and thinking about speech being structured and purposeful.
KS2
For our Key Stage 2 we build on the ideas introduced in Key Stage 1 and have three or four interlinked objectives, each under the relevant subheadings for that strand. Each objective is more complex than the previous key stage and introduces more sophisticated vocabulary as well as demanding a little more thought to its application. At this stage we put the emphasis on adapting to different situations and audiences, tailoring speech to a particular audience and being more aware of group dynamics and how to influence these.
