Oracy

A 'Talking' Culture

The Power of Speech: At St

Richard’s, we believe that all learning floats on a sea of talk.

Weaved through our high-quality curriculum, are opportunities for pupils to develop their speech, language and communication skills Our teaching pedagogy is rooted in the importance of children learning to talk fluently, confidently and articulately through play, role-play, collaborative learning challenges, discussions and debates. We believe that by enabling our pupils to ‘find their voice’ we equip them with the language skills that they need to succeed both in school and in life

Pupils are taught to: speak clearly and covey ideas confidently; justify ideas with reasons; ask questions to check understanding; develop vocabulary and build knowledge; negotiate; evaluate and build on the ideas of others and select the appropriate register for effective communication. As our pupils move through the school, the curriculum provides new challenges and opportunities for oracy These experiences build on previous learning and mean that learners are able to engage in a range of different types of talk through a variation of context and audiences

Learning New Vocabulary

Pupils are explicitly taught new vocabulary and then retrieval practice is used to ensure that the new words become embedded

Through teacher modelling and partner talk, the pupils are encouraged to use these new words in their oral and written work

Pupils are then given opportunities to show their new vocabulary during their written responses to our enquiry questions and through their double-page spreads

Some examples of the talk opportunities planned into the wider curriculum are: debates about our enquiry questions linked to our history and geography themes justifying our views and opinions in response to ‘big questions’ in RE taking on the of expert curators and ‘living history’ characters during our Time Travellers exhibition peer teaching in maths role play in EYFS retelling stories, texts and poems through Talk for Writing

Classroom Environment

In every classroom, key vocabulary for each subject area is prominently displayed and referred to during sequences of lessons Frequent opportunities are given for pupils to discuss and practice their responses, ideas, thoughts and feelings with their talk partners