Oracy

What is Oracy?

Oracy is teaching children to talk and teaching children through talk.

 

Why is it important?

The ability to communicate well is the number one skill that employers look for, yet speaking and listening in schools has not always been a high priority. Many other countries, with high levels of educational achievement recognise and champion the importance of developing children’s Oracy skills. Here at Pilgrim, we recognise that communication skills should be valued and taught explicitly to our children. This is why in 2017 we became part of the Plymouth Oracy project and have now firmly embedded this in everything that we do.

  • It allows children to be able to express their thoughts and feelings
  • Learning through talk allows children to use speech to explore and develop their ideas
  • The ability to communicate, is one of the number one skills that an employer looks for

 

What do we do in school for Oracy?

  • Every class has 'discussion rules' to teach children how to take part in a discussion
  • Each class has sentence stems to help children to do this
  • The first part of teaching in English, allows the children to practice their story telling skills
  • 'Word of the day' is used in each class, to help children to develop their vocabulary

 

What can you do at home?

  • When they have finished reading a story, ask your child to re-tell it to you using the sentence stems in the resources below
  • Ask your child what they have learnt today, rather than what they did
  • When your child finds a word that they don't know the meaning of, give them the chance to look it up, draw a picture to represent it or use it in a sentence of their own

Thoughtfulness

Ambition

Respect

Collaboration

Responsibility

Endeavour