Oracy at Pennine View School

Our Vision –
“At Pennine View School we aim to cultivate a community where every voice is valued and every individual feels truly heard. By championing the power of talk, we equip our students with the vital communication skills to thrive and succeed throughout their lives.”

At Pennine View School, Oracy is central to our values of Learn, Enjoy, Achieve, Respect and Nurture. Oracy underpins the whole curriculum in order to support our pupils to listen and respond respectfully, and work effectively with others. Thorough the development of Oracy skills at Pennine View, we support our pupils to be able to develop healthy, positive relationships and make and keep friends. Pupils will build the confidence to express themselves and also navigate conflicts in their relationships in a positive and productive way. These skills help pupils to enjoy learning, access rich and exciting opportunities and grow as independent, confident communicators.

How is Oracy taught at Pennine View School.

Oracy is taught discreetly as 1 lesson per week. During this time pupils will specifically focus on developing their Oracy skills which they then practice and further build upon during talk tasks across other curriculum subjects.

Pupils are provided with a wide range of Oracy rich opportunities throughout their time at Pennine View, giving them the chance to apply their Oracy skills to different talk types and different contexts, helping pupils to develop their confidence and find their voice in a range of different situations.

Our Oracy curriculum gives pupils the tools to form and share their ideas, solve problems collaboratively and develop the language needed to understand the world and be understood. Strong communication skills are proven to improve life chances, and we are committed to ensuring every pupil leaves us equipped to thrive in adulthood.

Voice 21

We are a Voice 21 partner school, committed to transforming Oracy teaching and learning across school. Voice 21 is a national charity that exists to enable teachers and schools to provide a high quality Oracy education so that all young people can find their voice for success in school and life.

The Oracy Framework

This framework breaks down the teaching of Oracy into 4 different strands: Physical, Linguistic, Cognitive and Social and Emotional.

In order to become effective communicators, it is important that pupils acquire the skills laid out in each of the four stands of the Oracy Framework. Our Oracy curriculum maps these skills out ensuring a progression of skills as pupils move through school.

Discussion guidelines

To create a safe, effective and respectful environment for talk we use a set of guidelines for talk. These guidelines are displayed in each classroom and are consistent across school ensuring that pupils are always aware of the expectations for talk.

Oracy Toolkit

To help support talk we use a wide range of strategies all with the aim of gradually building confidence as pupils develop the skills to become proficient speakers and listeners. These strategies include different groupings, talk tactic roles, sentence stems, vocabulary bullseyes and talk detectives. Pupils are taught how to use these strategies during the discrete Oracy lessons so that they can apply them across all subjects in a range of talk tasks.

We also reinforce the Oracy teaching through termly Oracy assemblies.  Pupils are encouraged to consider an idea or talking point and then share their ideas with a partner, trio or in a larger group.  Staff are on hand to support the children's discussions but more importantly, to listen to the children's ideas and encourage them to share this with the wider group.