Oracy at Selborne

What is oracy? 

Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language. At Selborne, oracy is a powerful tool for learning as it teaches pupils to become effective speakers and listeners as they discuss each subject curriculum. It also empowers them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. Through a high quality oracy education pupils 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. 

Joining Voice 21

Selborne Primary School has teamed up with a charity called Voice 21. It has provided our staff with research-based training to better all pupils' oracy skills. 

They have formed an oracy framework which focuses on four separate strands:

• Physical - making yourself heard, using your voice and body as an instrument
• Linguistic - knowing which words and phrases to use and using them
• Cognitive - the deliberate application of thought to what you are saying
• Social and emotional - engaging with the people around you; knowing you have the right to speak 

Our Oracy Vision 

At Selborne, pupils thrive in oracy by being able to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with all members of our community effectively through spoken language. We aspire for all pupils to learn to talk and to learn through talk with the ultimate goal of ensuring all pupils feel confident and valued. 

How you can support your child with oracy

• Be a role model - show good listening skills and turn-taking
• Discuss the word of the week with your child. Link it to words they already know
• Ask your child about their day in school and encourage them to share what they have learnt
• Listen to your child read and ask them questions about the text and their opinion
• Encourage your child to talk in sentences rather than singular words or phrases. Correct their spoken grammar, e.g. goed (go) or wented (went), has/have, falled (fell), eated (ate)
• Discuss and summarise a T.V. programme and ask for their opinion
• Reduce screen time and encourage them to play with you or siblings (board games are excellent for this)
• Make time for each other! Oracy can be done at any time and anywhere. Sit with your child and talk to them about anything they are interested in. 

 Oracy news 

	Oracy questions at lunchtime Mr. Matharu, our oracy champion, reminded pupils about our lunchtime question in an assembly in Autumn 2024. Which would you rather visit and why? Our pupils are encouraged to use the sentence stem to discuss this with their teachers and peers at lunchtime whilst eating dinner. Questions are changed on a regular basis.
Year 1 As part of their Geography learning, Year 1 pupils explored different maps of our local area. They took turns explaining what was similar about the maps and what was different. The pupils then summarised what they discussed with their class.
	Year 2  As part of their English learning, Year 2 used the oracy strategy 'conscience alley' to discuss a dilemma. The pupils had read the book Little Red in which they came face to face with the 'last wolf in the land'. This photo shows the pupils deciding whether they would help the wolf or not.
	Year 4 Year 4 used talk tokens in a maths lesson. A problem was presented and they had to decide how many steps were needed to solve the problem before they started to solve it. Then they worked as a group to apply the steps and produce a final answer.
Oracy in Year 5 English In Year 5, the pupils used an oracy activity to ask each other open ended questions when pretending to be a DemiGod. This activity was linked to their class text 'Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief'.
	Oracy in Year 5 R.E. Year 5 pupils used their oracy skills to take a moral dilemma, act it out and present it to the rest of the class. They worked superbly with others and had fun in their learning too.
Oracy in our ARP Our ARP pupils use visuals to help them improve their oracy skills. This activity was a great success and helped to build their confidence.