At Bierton CE Combined School, we believe spoken language to be fundamental to the achievement of our pupils. We understand that communication and language are the roots underpinning success in reading and writing and that good communication skills can enhance every type of learning.

Intent

We know language development is an area of key importance to our pupils. We use this as our driving force to improve children’s spoken language and vocabulary which has a positive impact on all wider subjects. We strive to develop their spoken language skills across all areas of the curriculum. We aim to give children their own voice as we believe this is vital for their future success. We strive for all children to be confident to express their own opinion and ideas in a respectful and supportive environment. We see Oracy as part of the schools pedagogy, not a standalone lesson or subject and we expect it to be threaded through the daily school life.

Impact

The national curriculum for English reflects the importance of spoken language in pupils’ development across the whole curriculum – cognitively, socially and linguistically. Spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing. Although we feel Oracy is much greater than the national curriculum gives weighting for. Teachers maximise Oracy opportunities in every lessons, by using: discussion, groupings, performance, talk tactics and many other strategies. As Oracy is part of the daily life in school children know what to do, the culture of respect within our dialogic classrooms and are fully involved.

Implementation 

We have found that when children explore learning through various oracy strategies and are exposed to new vocabulary they better retain this knowledge. This leads to learning becoming memorable and engrained. Meaning when children are presenting or writing, the language they use are of a higher level with a deeper understanding.