What is Oracy?

Oracy is the skill of being able to express yourself fluently and coherently through speech. We want our children at William Law to be able to speak clearly and fluently, in order to be able to discuss their ideas and share their thoughts with others.

The ability to talk and express yourself through the use of coherent sentences, using appropriate language, is a vital life skill that we want all our pupils to leave with. We are committed to teaching the children these skills and giving them opportunities to utilise them in all subject areas.

How are we promoting Oracy?

Children are encouraged to share their ideas with others, either in pairs, trios, groups or whole class. We encourage and promote talking in full sentences and use sentence stem starters to help support this. Examples of these are:

'I noticed that...'

'I wonder if...'

'I agree...'

'I disagree...'

We plan as many opportunities within lessons as we can to promote talk. We are also ensuring that we promote good listening skills, as this has a vital role in speech and language. We encourage the children to actively listen to each other when they are talking; ensuring they are facing the speaker, making eye contact and acknowledging what is being said.

Oracy is something we want to promote at William Law more and more.

How can you support talk at home?

We know how busy life can get but it is important to make time to talk to each other. Try to make time to talk as a family and share what you have all been doing during your day.

Try and ask questions such as: 

'Tell me something that has made you happy today...',

'What are you most proud of today?'

'Tell me three good things about today...'

These will all promote positive talk. Don't forget to tell you child something about your day too!

Using a wide range of vocabulary when you talk to each other, then explaining what these words mean, is also excellent, as well as correcting your child if they don’t use the correct Standard English.

Reading at home is perfect for promoting talk. Discussing and sharing stories together provides so much conversation.