Our Oracy Framework
What makes our framework different?
As with any approach to teaching and learning, there are lots of things to do but the focus is on why and how to do them. Oracy activities on their own, especially if easy to do, have a tendency to zombify. They still roam the classroom long after their animating purpose has been lost. However, oracy principles help activities stay true to their purposes – and allow you to devise new activities.
Our framework consists of 12 simple, memorable principles that can be applied in any classroom, on any subject.
What’s makes up our oracy framework?
1. Playground Confident, Classroom Shy - how to make the most of playground energy to put children at ease in the classroom.
2. Small Talk Before Big Talk - why we need to break our silence early before we talk in front of everyone
3. Sides Then Selves - why for some children, talking as someone else is easier than talking as themselves
4. Stretch - how the cognitive side of speaking fear can be overcome
5. Exposure - how to create “cover” to help everyone feel at ease
6. Shrink - why for children to be more, we have to be less. And how to do it.
7. Serve and Return - what the thirty-million word gap told us about oracy (and it’s not to do with the words you hear)
8. Co-Coaching Questions - how a simple set of open questions can push for deeper thinking and fearless talking
9. Talk Three Times - ways to help everyone rehearse their idea twice before making it public
10. Speaking Without Thinking - a failsafe way to overcome the “I dunno” card
11. Unwrongification - strategies to remove the fear of getting it wrong
12. PRACTICE over performance - why everyone in class - teacher included - should prioritise practice over performance
Help Me Find My Voice: A Practical Guide to Oracy for Schools
We’d never let a child leave school unable to read or write because “that’s how they are.” But we do sometimes make a mistake in thinking that when a child won’t speak in the classroom, it’s the child, not the classroom.
This practical guide to oracy explores why kids don’t talk in class – from kids who are “playground confident, classroom shy” to those who need to be someone else before they can be themselves. It’s fifteen years of experience of getting kids talking, boiled down to twelve principles you can use in every setting.
We hope this book arms you with the strategies you need to make one of the biggest differences you can - helping a child find their voice.
How can I learn more?
Buy the book: Each principle has its own chapter in our A6 pocketbook “Help Me Find My Voice” which you can buy in our online shop for just £3.
We also talk about the principles in our oracy resources - which you can sign up for here. It’s completely free and delivers you free oracy resources every single week. See why over 17,000 teachers have already signed up.
Enquire about training - we partner with schools week-in, week-out to help them develop oracy across their whole curriculum. Learn more about our training here and get in touch today.
Buy the book
Packed full of ideas to implement the 12 principles of our oracy framework. At only 56 pages, it can be read in a few sittings and used immediately.
Oracy Training/INSET
Engaging, memorable training that gives all set a toolkit of practical strategies to use immediately in their classroom.
Sign up for resources
We make resources so you don’t have to. We’ve been doing for 15 years - and get the best of them delivered to your inbox.
“I just wanted to say a huge thank you for your sessions with our Year 12s earlier this week. It was exactly what we were looking for…
…in terms of building critical thinking and debating skills, and getting them to think on the spot. It was fascinating to see who rose to the challenge and equally who found it quite difficult.
In particular, those of our students who will face interviews for competitive Uni courses / degree apprenticeships will have found it beneficial in terms of having to justify their reasoning and respond to counter-arguments.
As far as I know, we are looking to re-book next year.
Katy Powis-Holt, Head of Year 12, Eltham College