What is oracy?

Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language. It involves learning to speak clearly, listen carefully, think deeply and respond thoughtfully.

Oracy education helps children learn to talk by developing their speaking and listening skills, and learn through talk by using discussion to explore ideas and deepen their understanding.

Hook Junior School’s vision for oracy

At the heart of our oracy vision is the belief that every voice matters and that effective communication helps children learn, build relationships and contribute to their communities. We want every child to feel heard, valued and empowered.

Oracy is a foundation for learning across the curriculum and a key skill for life. We help pupils recognise that their voice has both power and purpose. Through attentive listening, purposeful discussion and effective collaboration, we support children to communicate with growing confidence in a range of contexts.

Our vision is built upon our school’s core values:

Responsibility: taking care in how we communicate and contribute to discussions
Respect: listening attentively and valuing the contributions of others
Empathy: considering different viewpoints and seeking to understand others
Inclusion: creating a supportive environment where every child has opportunities to contribute meaningfully

By embedding these values throughout school life, we help children become thoughtful, confident communicators, lifelong learners and active members of their communities.

The Oracy Framework

At Hook Junior School, we use the Oracy Framework, developed by Voice 21 and Oracy Cambridge, to support the teaching of speaking and listening. It identifies four connected strands:

Physical: using voice, pace, volume and body language to support communication
Linguistic: developing and using a broad vocabulary, choosing words precisely and adapting language to the purpose and audience.
Cognitive: organising ideas, explaining reasoning, asking questions and building on others’ thinking
Social and emotional: listening and responding, taking turns, including others and developing confidence

Our classroom framework provides prompts to help pupils put these skills into practice. Children consider whether their ideas are clear and organised, whether they are using key vocabulary and giving reasons, and how they are encouraging others to participate.

Together, these strands help children understand and practise the skills needed for effective communication.

Developing speaking and listening

Our discussion guidelines, developed with the children, establish shared expectations for respectful and productive talk. They encourage children to:

listen actively
recognise and value others’ opinions
build on and challenge others’ ideas respectfully
take turns and include everyone
justify and explain their ideas
work together to reach a shared decision

Valuing someone’s contribution does not mean always agreeing with them. We help children explore differences of opinion thoughtfully and respectfully.

Our Listening Ladder helps pupils reflect on their listening skills and identify their next steps. It encourages children to give their attention to the speaker, respond to what they hear, ask questions to clarify understanding, explore ideas more deeply and summarise the speaker’s ideas.

These resources are revisited and practised through classroom discussion, helping children understand how to use them in different situations.

Oracy across the curriculum

We teach, model and practise oracy through discussion, debate, collaboration and presentation. Children learn how to use talk both to communicate their understanding and to develop their thinking.

Our established discussion strategies focus on Instigate, Build and Challenge: starting a discussion, building on another person’s contribution and challenging an idea respectfully. During 2026–27, we are extending this repertoire by progressively introducing further talk strategies and structured discussion roles.

Teachers provide sentence starters, modelling and guided practice to help pupils:

explain their ideas and give reasons
build on someone else’s contribution
ask questions and seek clarification
challenge an idea respectfully
consider alternative viewpoints
summarise what they have heard or learnt

For example, pupils might explain how they solved a mathematical problem, discuss a character’s choices in a book or consider evidence in history. These opportunities help children explore ideas in greater depth and develop their understanding together.

Teachers explicitly teach, model and revisit language and vocabulary, including the subject-specific words children need to understand and explain their learning. Pupils have regular opportunities to practise using new vocabulary in meaningful discussions, explanations and presentations, helping them use it with increasing accuracy and independence. Discussion also helps children reflect on how they approached their learning, which strategies helped and what they need to do next.

During 2026–27, we are strengthening our planned progression in oracy across Years 3 to 6 through the second year of our Voice 21 programme. This work builds on established approaches and develops increasingly demanding opportunities for pupils to organise their ideas, reason, listen, collaborate and communicate with different audiences.

We are also strengthening the teaching and rehearsal of oracy skills through our year-group productions and performances, sharing-learning events and opportunities to work alongside parents and carers. These experiences provide meaningful purposes for talk and help children practise adapting their communication to different audiences.

Supporting and challenging every child

Every voice matters at Hook Junior School. We maintain high expectations for all pupils while recognising that children may need different routes into speaking, listening and discussion. Effective oracy involves thoughtful listening, reasoning and responding, as well as speaking confidently.

We aim to identify and address barriers to participation early. This includes considering the needs of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), disadvantaged pupils, children learning English as an additional language, and quieter or less-confident speakers. Support is matched to each child’s strengths and needs.

Depending on the activity and the pupil, support may include:

teaching and modelling key vocabulary
thinking time and opportunities to observe before contributing
rehearsal with a partner before speaking to a larger group
paired or small-group discussion with clear roles
sentence starters, visual prompts and explicit teaching of language and vocabulary
adult modelling and guided practice

We teach children how to invite others into discussions, value contributions and challenge ideas respectfully. We pay attention to whose voices are heard and whose ideas are developed, so participation extends beyond those who readily volunteer. Speaking more frequently does not, by itself, demonstrate stronger oracy.

We recognise that children show attention in different ways. Listening prompts are adapted to individual communication, sensory and regulation needs; eye contact and remaining still are not essential for every child to listen effectively.

Our approach builds independence. Temporary prompts and adult support are reduced when pupils are ready, while adjustments that remain necessary continue. Confident speakers are challenged to deepen their reasoning, summarise different viewpoints, ask probing questions and help others participate.

Teachers draw on pupils’ views and families’ knowledge to understand what helps each child communicate and feel included. Where additional support is needed, teachers work with the school’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Co-ordinator (SENDCo) to plan and review appropriate provision. Support responds to identified needs without waiting for a diagnosis.

Families who have concerns about their child’s speaking, listening or participation are encouraged to speak to the class teacher.

Supporting oracy at home

Everyday conversations offer valuable opportunities to practise speaking and listening. You can support your child by:

asking open questions such as “What do you think?” and “Why do you think that?”
allowing time for them to think and respond
encouraging them to explain an opinion and give a reason
discussing characters’ feelings and choices when reading together
exploring unfamiliar words together when reading or talking, discussing their meanings and using them in new contexts
taking turns to speak, listening carefully and asking follow-up questions
inviting them to explain how to play a game or complete a familiar task

Choose a relaxed setting and give your child time to share their ideas in a way that works for them.

You may notice your child bringing home oracy stickers, which recognise their developing skills in the four strands of the framework. Ask which strand their sticker relates to, what they practised and what they would like to work on next.

These simple conversations help children practise expressing their ideas, listening to others and reflecting on their learning.