Oracy

We are a Voice 21 Oracy Centre of Excellence 2024

We are proud to have been recognised as a Voice 21 Oracy Centre of Excellence for our work in developing students' oracy (speaking and listening) skills.

Being accredited as a Voice 21 Centre of Excellence certifies and celebrates that we are leading the way in providing a high-quality oracy education for students and acting as a beacon of good practice for over 1000 schools nationwide.

Our Award

Chawson 1st School announced as recipient of prestigious national ‘Centre of Excellence’ award for Oracy.

Chawson 1st School has received an Oracy Centre of Excellence award from the national oracy charity, Voice 21, for its work developing students’ speaking and listening skills.

Voice 21 work with more than 1000 schools nationally, and Chawson 1st School was one of only eleven to have their oracy achievements recognised in the most recent round of applications.

The Voice 21 Oracy Centre of Excellence award certifies and celebrates schools who are changing the way they educate by supporting students to find their voice - and as a result are transforming their learning and life chances. To secure its recognition, Chawson 1st School had to demonstrate the quality of oracy education being provided across five areas of school life: their school’s vision, culture, curriculum, learning and impact on students.

As a Voice 21 Oracy Centre of Excellence, Chawson 1st School will support other schools in the community and across the country, showcasing how oracy teaching can impact their students’ future education and employment opportunities.

Nicola Peck, Head of Chawson 1st School says, “We are extremely proud to be recognised as an Oracy Centre of Excellence by Voice 21. Oracy is at the core of all of our teaching and learning and we know it makes a positive difference for our children. We’ve seen our children achieve more and believe in themselves as a direct result of our focus on Oracy across the curriculum. Oracy makes learning accessible and fun for all; it’s at the heart of what we do here at Chawson.”

Kate Paradine, CEO at Voice 21, says: “I’d like to congratulate Chawson 1st School on becoming a Voice 21 Oracy Centre of Excellence. It’s a testament to the innovative and inspirational oracy teaching by staff across school. This is already having significant impacts on students’ learning, and will be of huge benefit to them as they progress throughout school and in future education and employment opportunities. Chawson 1st School is part of the national oracy movement that is transforming the education system and preparing all students to use their voice to succeed in school and in life."

What is Oracy?

Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop language and engage with others through spoken language. At Chawson First School we believe that developing children's oracy skills is as important as their Numeracy and Literacy skills and that Oracy is interwoven in every aspect of their life both at school and at home.

Why is it important?

Listen to our Oracy Ministers talking about why they think Oracy and being articulate is important to them.

Oracy in school

Our journey to realise our school vision of being Articulate begins with our youngest learners in preschool where they practise the important skills of listening and taking turns to speak and listen. From Reception to Year 4 we build on these skills through our progression documents. These allow teachers to introduce groupings, sentence stems and opportunities to talk sequentially. 

Oracy in the classrooms

All classrooms display listening guidelines and sentence stems that the children can use in their independent discussions.

Children are given opportunities to practise their skills with different sized groups such as pairs, trios and small groups. In KS2 they take on different roles in the conversations such as the silent summariser. 

Parent Workshops

We believe that engaging with parents and including them on our Oracy journey is fundamental to making significant changes. We have provided parent workshops to explain Oracy and invited them into the classroom to witness high quality discussions taking place. 

PowerPoints from the presentation are included below

Talk for Ten - Oracy based homework

Each week, on a Monday, we will send out an exciting Talk for Ten conversation starter. These are statements that have been deliberately chosen to be accessible to all ages and yet could also lead to the most interesting deep debates and discussions!

We ask that as a family you dedicate a quality ten minutes each week to have a thorough conversation. You could use the Chawson Oracy sentence stems included to:

· Have a back and forth conversation

· Build on each other’s ideas

· Question each other to gain more information

· Disagree agreeably!

· Add information to make a persuasive argument

Those of you who came to our Oracy workshops will know how important Oracy is, and how it forms the foundation on our teaching and learning here at Chawson. Let’s work together to support children’s Oracy.

Talk for Ten homework now forms the basis of our homework from Reception to Year 4, and Pre-school can join in too. You’ll still receive skills-based homework such as reading, spellings and times tables as these are vital skills too.

Happy Talking!

Oracy Ministers

Did you know we have elected Oracy Ministers in each Year 2 - 4 class? They have a range of roles, from speaking in whole school celebration events such as Harvest and carol concerts, being talk detectives in weekly assemblies, conducting 'listening walks', and leading Talk for Ten discussions at lunchtime.