This year at Beechwood, we are focusing on how we can embed oracy into our curriculum to ensure all our children are confident and effective communicators. The Government’s Writing Framework and Curriculum and Assessment Review both outline the importance of oracy in helping children thrive and for it to sit alongside literacy and numeracy at the core of our education system.
Oracy is the ability to communicate effectively by articulating ideas as well as developing your understanding through listening to others. Our commitment to building and embedding a culture of oracy for all, has led us to create our own Beechwood Oracy Vision. This will underpin everything we do in school and empower our pupils to find their voice so they can be successful with us and in later life.
The vision has been shared with the children today and with it the tools we will be using in class to help them become better communicators. These tools are based around four key strategies: tracking the speaker, listening respectfully to other people’s points of view, remembering to stop talking so we can actively listen to others and using a confident and clear voice when sharing our ideas so we can be understood.
So, what can you do at home to help your child develop their oracy skills? Time is precious and experts recommend squeezing in as many opportunities to enjoy talking with your child as possible, for example during mealtimes, journeys, playing together and so on.
Read aloud to each other
Facilitating reading at home, each day wherever possible, is the most powerful way in which you can support your child with their learning. Set aside some time and find somewhere quiet without any distractions wherever possible. Even confident readers benefit from being read to regularly as it can expose them to a broader range of vocabulary and presents opportunities to discuss and debate topics and issues.
Engage them in a conversation
Oracy skills are all about speaking and listening. What better way is there to do both than by having a conversation? Try asking your child more specific questions to avoid the typical ‘I can’t remember’ answer. Ask them what games they played at lunchtime, what made you feel happy today? Who made you laugh today? What was your favourite part of the day? What are you most proud of yourself for? It can help to narrow the focus, so children know where to start when sharing their thoughts. Think about the vocabulary you are using and introduce as many new words as you can into conversation.
Playing games
Would you rather…? Eye Spy, Simon Says, The Alphabet Game, walking to school and or in the car are great ways to start conversations and get the children talking.
As the year progresses, I will update you on the further work we are doing in school to embed oracy as well as more ideas about how you can help your child at home.
For more details about our oracy provision in school and the Voice 21 Oracy Framework (Voice 21 | Oracy | United Kingdom) which we are following please go to our website.
