Our vision for Oracy at OWFED
At Otley and Witnesham, we believe that oracy is a fundamental skill that underpins academic success, supports social and emotional development, and prepares our pupils for the challenges of the future. We want our children to be effective communicators who can express their ideas confidently and engage meaningfully in discussions.
Through the explicit teaching of oracy we aim to develop the pupils’ language skills to help them find their voice whilst empowering them to speak effectively, express themselves confidently whilst listening and responding attentively. We believe that the art of speaking well and listening well should be woven together throughout our lessons as we harness and guide the children to be eloquent and concise communicators. We value all contributions and believe that it is important that each voice is heard. Within our schools, we have a culture of trust and respect where children feel confident that their views will be valued and listened to and as a result find their voice. Speaking and listening is embedded in our broad and balanced curriculum to deepen subject knowledge through dialogue and exploration, each year building on previous learning. Children also enjoy public speaking in performances, poetry recitals and debating events.
As children move through the school our vision is that children flourish academically and socially using oracy skills. With a clear progression of skills mapped out, children will learn to convey knowledge cohesively, comment on matters, solve problems, voice their views and have the ability to explain their thinking.
Oracy is a driving force for learning which is weaved into all aspects of the curriculum for purposeful talk. Pupils learn through talk and to talk; developing and deepening their subject knowledge and understanding through talk, which has been planned, designed, modelled, scaffolded and structured to enable them to learn effectively. The deliberate, explicit and systematic teaching of oracy across year groups and throughout the curriculum supports our children to make progress in the four strands of oracy outlined in the Oracy Framework.
Our children will:
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Speak with confidence, clarity and eloquence.
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Recognise the importance of listening in conjunction with speaking.
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Be confident to express and justify their own opinions to others.
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Adapt their use of language for different purposes and audiences.
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Talk for a specific purpose e.g. to persuade or entertain
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Accurately use key vocabulary when talking.
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Sustain a logical argument, question, reason and respond to others appropriately following the ‘Talk Guidelines’ set up in each class.
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Be open minded and respect the contribution of others and to take on board their views.
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Confidently build on their peers' responses to articulate their reasons or to solve a problem
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Be given a range of opportunities to share their learning in engaging ways through presentations, discussions, storytelling, recitals, drama, poetry and debate
The Oracy framework
The Oracy Framework was designed and shared by Oracy Cambridge and Voice 21.
The framework synthesises the myriad of skills that constitute oracy into four distinct categories - cognitive, linguistic, physical and social - designed to practically organise and support teaching and learning.
As a school, we are working on an Oracy progression. Once this has been completed, we will have broken down the oracy framework into age-specific skills, knowledge and understanding in a progression map which teacher will refer to when planning lessons and teaching. These will provide clear continuity and clear progression in the development of skills from the EYFS to Year 6.
Talk TacTICS
It is our vision for children to use progressive Talk Tactics to build on and challenge ideas in a safe environment, understand others’ viewpoints and come to shared agreements. Talk Tactics are used in all lessons to encourage pupils to think strategically about their contributions to group talk. Providing pupils with roles to play in discussions helps to manage talk and encourages the development of certain speaking and listening skills.
TALK GUIDELINES
All classes have key-stage appropriate talk guidelines. These are displayed in the classroom and consistently referred to whenever a pupil is engaging in any activity requiring speaking and listening skills.
The Power of Subject-Specific Talk
We recognise that the ability to articulate complex ideas is fundamental to deep learning in every subject. That's why we utilise progressive 'talk like a...' mats across our wider curriculum. These subject-specific resources provide teachers and students with carefully structured sentence stems and vocabulary to guide high-quality discussions and written work. By consistently supporting oracy in this way—from history to science to art—we empower students to think, speak, and write with greater precision and confidence, effectively 'talking like a historian' or 'talking like a scientist'. This targeted support ensures that all children can access, engage with, and master the specialist language essential for demonstrating high-quality learning in every subject.