From The News DESSC - Issue 5

IT’S GOOD TO TALK

The sense of relief when Covid 19 restrictions were lifted in schools was immense; we were finally free to once-again organise our classrooms to best suit the learning and our children could interact and collaborate without masks or social distancing. Teachers could, at last, communicate with their classes, using the whole of their faces, rather than just the top half not covered by a surgical mask.

Fast forward twelve weeks and one could be forgiven for forgetting the incredibly challenging times that we, as a community, lived through day in, day out at DESSC. It is fantastic to see the ‘real’ DESSC thriving once again: the incredible range of ECAs available to children; the immense array of learning opportunities; the exciting environments; the smiling faces! Indeed, a walk around the primary school would show the school is back to its bustling, joyful, purposeful best.

However, as much as we would like to, we cannot sweep away two and a half years of interrupted learning and high anxiety caused by the pandemic. Only now are educators beginning to measure how the COVID-19 years have affected the development of children’s learning, particularly those in the crucial formative years of their education. Fortunately, plans to ensure that our children’s learning was compensated were afoot even as the pandemic raged around us. In the classroom, we could see the effect that mask-wearing, social distancing and distance learning were having on the language development of our children. It was also noted that some of our children were less confident in social situations and found it difficult to hold a conversation; the seeds of the DESS Oracy Project were sewn.

The DESS Oracy project is a major area of focus in this year’s development plan. Initially the project will be aimed at Foundation Stage to Year 1, with the aim of developing Oracy throughout the school in Terms 2 and 3.

Using the Voice 21 Oracy Framework and research from the Education Endowment Fund as a starting point, the aim is to teach our children the skills needed to become worldclass communicators, in addition to providing exciting and stimulating opportunities to practice Oracy throughout the curriculum. After all, research shows that all learning is enhanced by the development of language skills and carefully planned opportunities for structured talk.

Term 1’s theme is ‘Let’s Discuss’; we are teaching our children the essential skills of introducing, building or challenging ideas in discussion. Being a good listener by establishing eye-contact, showing appropriate facial expression and body language and taking turns are all tangible discussion skills that are modeled by our staff in school and practised daily by our children. We have launched the DESS Talk@Home books as a way of partnering with our parents to develop discussion skills, as well as promoting the value of high-quality discussion at home. Future themes are ‘Let’s Act’ and ‘Let’s Present’. Our rebranding of learning skills (The 6Cs) ties in beautifully to the Oracy project as areas such as Communication, Collaboration and Compassion will only be enhanced by the development of Oracy at DESS.

We know that in order for our children to flourish, they need to become effective communicators who can draw upon a repertoire of oracy skills. Watch this space for more exciting oracy news as the year progresses.

Article by Matt Adams, Year 2 Class Teacher and Literacy Leader