Intent

At St Anne’s Catholic Primary School, we understand that a strong command of the spoken word is a crucial educational outcome and that becoming an articulate, effective communicator forms the basis of democratic engagement within wider society. As research clearly finds an indisputable link between spoken language development and pupils’ broader life chances, St Anne’s recognises spoken language development as an important curricular goal. Our knowledge-rich curriculum aligns to the pedagogy that, for children to demonstrate proficiency in spoken language they require explicit teaching of the knowledge, for example vocabulary, and ideas necessary for effective communication. Our curriculum is rich in oracy opportunities for our children. With knowledge and skills, experiences and vocabulary at the core of our curriculum, we are committed to using purposeful talk throughout our school to drive forward learning. We do this through talk in the classroom, which has been planned, modelled, scaffolded and structured to enable all learners to develop the skills needed to talk effectively and with confidence in school and in life. Our deliberate and explicit teaching of oracy throughout our curriculum supports our children to make progress in the four strands of oracy (physical, linguistic, cognitive and social & emotional). We see it as essential that children acquire the ability to be able to speak coherently and politely in their everyday experiences to communicate their thoughts effectively.

Implementation

At St Anne's we ensure full coverage of the Speaking and Listening ELG/ National Curriculum objectives, through employing ‘The Oracy Framework (Voice 21)’ approaches (see below)
These progressive development of speaking and listening skills are built into all aspects of our curriculum.

Early Learning Goals
Listening, Attention and Understanding
Children at the expected level of development will:

• Listen attentively and respond to what they hear with relevant questions, comments and actions when being read to and during whole class discussions and small group interactions;

• Make comments about what they have heard and ask questions to clarify their understanding;

• Hold conversation when engaged in back-and-forth exchanges with their teacher and peers

Speaking
Children at the expected level of development will:

• Participate in small group, class and one-to-one discussions, offering their own ideas, using recently introduced vocabulary;
• Offer explanations for why things might happen, making use of recently introduced vocabulary from stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems when appropriate;
•  Express their ideas and feelings about their experiences using full sentences, including use of past, present and future tenses and making use of conjunctions, with modelling and support from their teacher.

National Curriculum Years 1-6

• listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers
• ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge
•  use relevant strategies to build their vocabulary
• articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions
• give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings
• maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments
• use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesizing, imagining and exploring ideas
• speak audibly and fluently with an increasing command of Standard English
• participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates
• gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener(s)
• consider and evaluate different viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others
• select and use appropriate registers for effective communication

Impact
Our children will be able to communicate effectively themselves and will be able to listen actively to others. Our children will be polite and confident speakers. Our children can discuss experiences when they have spoken to a variety of audiences. A ‘buzz’ of excitement and enjoyment for the subject can be felt and seen around the school.