Oracy

We are a Voice 21 Oracy Centre of Excellence

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.

In Voice 21 Oracy Schools, students learn the oracy skills they need to succeed in school and in life.

Why oracy matters?

By teaching students to become effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them.

• Speaking and listening skills are critical foundations for reading and writing.
• Students with better oral language skills are more likely to achieve the highest grades in GCSE Maths and English.
• Young people with good communication skills are less likely to have mental health difficulties.

As a Voice 21 Oracy Centre of Excellence, we put oracy at the heart of our teaching and learning across all subject areas, enabling students to develop and deepen their knowledge and understanding through talk in the classroom.

We support our students to become articulate communicators who are able to present themselves confidently across a range of settings and contexts, from group discussions to formal presentations.

In Voice 21 Oracy Schools:

• 89% of students agree/strongly agree that speaking and listening has helped them make progress with their school work.
• 77% of teachers said that oracy had boosted attainment.
• 96% of teachers said that oracy is an essential part of teaching and learning.

Find out more about oracy and Voice 21 here

Our Oracy Vision

"Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language." Voice 21 

At Audley Junior School, oracy is a vital part of every day.  Children develop the confidence and emotional intelligence to communicate meaningfully with others to develop ideas and deepen understanding. 

At Audley Junior School, we centre our oracy curriculum around The Oracy Framework. At the start of the year, each class develops their own discussion guidelines based on the four strands of, 'Physical', 'Linguistic', 'Cognitive' and 'Social and Emotional'.  The discussion guidelines develop in complexity as the children move through the school.  

The Audley ABC is a key part of every lesson and allows our children to hold a meaningful discussion.  We 'A' - agree with what has been said, 'B' - build on a point made by others and 'C' - challenge other people's opinion in a polite way.  We use the sentence stems, 'I agree...', 'I would like to build on X's point...' and ' I would like to challenge...'.