With oracy at the heart of our curriculum, Holy Cross is committed to building and embedding a culture of oracy through an effective oracy curriculum. Purposeful talk is used to drive learning forward through talk in the classroom, which has been planned, designed, modelled, scaffolded and structured to enable all learners to develop the skills needed to talk effectively and with confidence. The deliberate, explicit and systematic teaching of oracy across phases and throughout the curriculum will support children to make progress in the four strands of oracy.
We want every child at Holy Cross Primary School to find their voice.
Oracy develops pupils' confidence, articulacy and capacity to learn. Providing a high quality oracy education empowers students, regardless of their background, to find their voice for success in school and in life. Effective communication skills are needed for students to succeed in later life.
Voice 21
As a whole school, we are working on building and developing our Oracy Debating Curriculum across the school.
What is Oracy?
"Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language." Voice 21
Having strong oracy skills means that you have:
- the ability to structure your thoughts in a way that makes sense to others, and
- the vocabulary to say precisely what you want to say.
So, what is oracy? Ultimately and essentially, it's about being a strong and effective communicator.
This means that it also refers to the range of speaking and listening skills, behaviours, and language necessary for communicating and working with others so that it makes sense to them. Oracy, in other words, covers the physical, social and emotional, linguistic and cognitive aspects of learning.
In each class, the children will be encouraged to turn to face the person they are communicating with, maintain eye contact, speak clearly and project their voice and to listen and respond. Your support and encouragement with these skills at home would also be valuable to your child and allow them to practise the skills they are learning in school.
If you wish to find out more about oracy, please use the following links below:
Alternartively, you can speak to our Oracy Lead in school: Mrs Shaw