Building the Foundations for Fluent Oracy
Oracy at Eaves – Every Voice Matters
At Eaves Primary School, we believe that every child deserves to have a voice and to know that their voice matters. Oracy—the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through speaking, listening and communication—is therefore a fundamental part of our curriculum. We see it as essential not only for academic success, but for developing confident, thoughtful and active members of society.
Our approach is built around three interconnected elements:
Learning to talk,
Learning through talk
Learning about talk
Children are explicitly taught how to communicate effectively, while purposeful talk is woven throughout everyday teaching as a powerful tool for thinking and learning. Pupils learn to explain, question, reason, justify, debate, collaborate, present and reflect across the curriculum.
Oracy in Everyday Practice
Oracy is not taught only through isolated speaking activities. It is part of everyday classroom practice at Eaves. Strategies such as Talk Trios, Think–Pair–Share–Refine, Pass and Go, reasoning partners, oral rehearsal and structured discussion give children regular opportunities to organise their thinking and learn from one another. Teachers model high-quality spoken language and explicitly teach children how to build on, challenge, clarify and justify ideas.
Our GROWTH approach to teaching supports this particularly well. Children retrieve and discuss prior learning, listen carefully to new teaching, rehearse ideas collaboratively, explain their independent thinking and articulate connections with previous and future learning. Talk is purposeful: it is used when it helps children to think more deeply, reveal misconceptions, practise vocabulary, develop reasoning or consolidate understanding.
A Progressive Approach
Oracy develops progressively from Nursery through to Year 6. In EYFS, the foundations are established through high-quality interactions, stories, songs, role play, vocabulary development, turn-taking and sustained shared thinking. As children move through KS1, they increasingly learn to explain their thinking, ask relevant questions, listen and respond to others and use taught vocabulary accurately.
Throughout KS2, expectations become increasingly sophisticated. Children learn to give extended explanations, justify opinions with evidence, question and challenge ideas respectfully, adapt their language for different audiences and purposes, and participate in increasingly complex discussions, debates and presentations. By Year 6, we want children to be able to listen critically, reason carefully, communicate confidently and adapt the way they speak according to context, audience and purpose.
This progression develops four interconnected aspects of communication:
Physical Skills such as pace, clarity and expression;
Linguistic Skills including vocabulary and sentence structure;
Cognitive Skills such as reasoning, questioning and evaluating; and
Social and Emotional Skills including listening, collaboration, empathy and respectful disagreement.
Oracy Across the Curriculum
We recognise that effective talk looks different in different subjects. Children learn to reason and prove in mathematics, hypothesise and explain in science, use evidence to construct arguments in history, interpret texts in English, discuss beliefs and perspectives in RE, critique creatively in art and communicate collaboratively in PE.
Vocabulary is central to this approach. Children need opportunities not simply to encounter ambitious and subject-specific vocabulary, but to hear it, say it, understand it, connect it to existing knowledge and use it purposefully in their own explanations.
Oracy, Equity and Belonging
Most importantly, our approach to oracy is about equity. Opportunities to develop confident communication should not depend upon a child's background, prior experiences or confidence. We deliberately create structured opportunities so that classroom dialogue is not dominated by the quickest or most confident speakers.
We recognise and value the many different ways in which children communicate, including speech, sign, gesture and AAC. Children with SEND, speech, language and communication needs and those learning English as an additional language are supported through careful modelling, vocabulary teaching, visual scaffolds, rehearsal, appropriate groupings and additional thinking time.
We also teach children that accent and dialect are part of identity. Rather than promoting one way of speaking as inherently better than another, we help children develop a broad linguistic repertoire so that they can make informed choices about how they communicate in different situations.
Finding Their Voice
Oracy extends beyond individual lessons. Assemblies, performances, pupil leadership, debates, collaborative projects, enrichment, careers experiences and opportunities to engage with visitors, families and our community give children authentic reasons and audiences for communication.
Through our EAVES values of Exploration, Authenticity, Vision, Encouragement and Synergy, children learn that their voice can help them to explore ideas, connect with others, advocate for themselves, listen to different perspectives and contribute positively to their community.
Ultimately, our ambition is for every child to leave Eaves as a knowledgeable, articulate, confident and respectful communicator—someone who can listen carefully, think deeply, express ideas clearly, disagree respectfully and use their voice with confidence and purpose.
At Eaves, oracy is not simply about speaking more. It is about thinking more deeply, listening more carefully and ensuring that every child has the knowledge, skills and confidence to make their voice count.
Oracy Enrichment Opportunities
My Community, My Voice – Democracy Week
Our My Community, My Voice Week brought democracy to life at Eaves! Children across KS2 put themselves forward for a range of pupil leadership roles, sharing their applications with the whole school in a way that suited them best – from speeches and artwork to PowerPoint presentations.
Children campaigned for roles including Junior Leadership Team, Art, Science, Reading, Maths and Sports Ambassadors, Safety and Environment Officers, B’s Buddies and WIBS (Wellbeing, Inclusion and Belonging Team).
Following the presentations, pupils headed to the Eaves Polling Station to cast their votes for the children they felt would make fantastic leaders. It was an inspiring week filled with confidence, courage, pupil voice and democracy in action, showing our children that their ideas – and their votes – really do matter.
Debate Competition
Four of our Year 6 pupils recently represented the school at the Town Hall in a debate competition—and what an incredible job they did! Competing against other schools, they delivered a sensational performance, impressing the judges with clear, concise and remarkably mature arguments. Their task was to oppose the motion that children should be limited to just two hours of screen time per week, and they rose to the challenge brilliantly. Speaking with confidence, teamwork and thoughtful reasoning, they truly wowed the room and went on to win their debate.
We are incredibly proud of their achievement and the way they represented our school. Well done to all four pupils! 🎉👏
The Debate Academy
We were delighted to welcome The Debate Academy into school to work alongside our Upper Key Stage 2 classes, helping pupils develop their oracy and debating skills. Through engaging and interactive sessions, the children learned how to confidently express their ideas, listen carefully to others, and build clear, persuasive arguments.
During the workshops, pupils explored a range of key debating skills, including:
structuring and presenting a strong argument
using evidence and examples to support a viewpoint
responding thoughtfully to opposing opinions
speaking clearly and confidently in front of an audience
working collaboratively as part of a team
The children applied these skills to discuss and debate current issues. One of the topics they explored was the proposition that social media does harm, considering both the arguments in favour of this view and the opposing perspectives.
The sessions were lively, thoughtful and full of excellent discussion. Our pupils represented the school brilliantly with their confidence, respect for others’ views and well-reasoned ideas. We are very proud of how they engaged with the programme and the maturity they showed throughout. 👏
