Oracy

Voice 21

At Margaret Wix Primary School, we work to transform the learning and life chances of all of our students through talk. At every opportunity we champion oracy. We’re on a mission to transform the learning and life chances of our children through talk so that all children can use their voice for success in school and in life. 

By demonstrating the value and impact of oracy, we aim to inspire and deliver high-quality oracy education and, in doing so, we ensure that society is a more equitable place where all of our children’s voices are valued and heard.

Through our deliberate and explicit and systematic teaching of oracy across phases and throughout the curriculum, we will support our children to make progress in the four strands of oracy outlined in the Oracy Framework below.

At Margaret Wix School, we embed oracy into our daily practice. Opportunities to learn to talk and learn through talk are as follows:

1) Children are often part of classroom discussions using discussion guidelines. Our Jigsaw and Internet Safety schemes of learning provide rich opportunities for talk. Children are encouraged to demonstrate talk tactics like: building on other ideas; challenging thoughts and ideas; instigating conversations and probing deeper. 

2) Children in all year groups showcase their learning in a 'sharing assembly.' They practise speaking to an audience in a clear, expressive way. 

3) Throughout the curriculum, children are given opportunities to talk and discuss about their learning. They use role play and hot seating to explore concepts, characters, view points and much more. 

4) Across the school children are able to apply for different roles such as school parliament, house captains and reading ambassadors. 

5) We use black boards in our classrooms to prompt discussion. Throughout the unit of work, we build our knowledge. We then re visit these boards at the start of each session to consolidate understanding and rehearse key vocabulary. We discuss our learning, which provides opportunities for rich talk.

4) We use speech bubbles in our class rooms, located on the white boards to encourage rich talk. These link to our talk tactics which encourage children to build on their own ideas and others.

5) Across school, we display thought provoking questions to get children and families talking. Therese are strategically placed to target families when they drop off and pick up their children. These help promote talk and are updated regularly.

6) Vocabulary is evident and valued on all of our displays both in classrooms and around the school. These words are revisited at each point of the learning sequence and children are encouraged to talk about and use them in their work.