What is Oracy?
What does oracy mean?
Oracy is the ability to express yourself through speech and talk. This unlocks the opportunity to articulate your ideas, engage with others and apply your learning. Easy opportunities for oracy include:
Classroom discussions (such as using P4C)
Reading out loud
Group work
Structured questioning
Debating
Why oracy matters
The Education Endowment Foundation places oracy, or oral language interventions, as third on their list of top inventions for progress. It is described as “Very high impact for very low cost based on extensive evidence.” According to the EEF, on average, oral language approaches have a high impact on pupil outcomes of 6 months’ additional progress.
And it’s easy to see why: if a child can talk about a topic, they’re much more likely to understand it, and access deeper more challenging questions about it.
By helping a child talk, we are helping them understand their own thinking, and share this with the world. This has immeasurable benefits for their mental health, their ability to bond with others and flourish at home, at work, and in the community.
“I wish you’d come to my school when I was a child. I was the one who hid behind my hair at the back of the class and hoped
nobody asked me to speak.” I still remember the passion a teaching assistant showed in these words after a training session, ten years ago or more. None of her teachers had helped her find her voice. It was only well into adulthood that, fed up of being sidelined, she did so herself by sheer willpower. A teacher at a recent open evening had said her son was, “No trouble, you’d hardly know he’s there.” You can imagine how that went down.
Why do some children struggle with oracy?
Some don’t speak in case others won’t listen.
Some want to speak, but not in front of thirty people.
Some are afraid to disagree with their peers.
Some are confident talkers - but not if the teacher is around.
Some lack practice, and fear performance.
Some can get started but run out of things to say too easily..
Some are afraid of getting the wrong answer.
And some discover that playing the “I dunno” card gets you out of speaking.
How do we help schools?
In a practical, logistical sense, we support schools by easy to use, practical resources that make a real difference to children’s oracy skills.
We also model excellent oracy pedagogy with of workshops with classes of different ages, observed by teachers, followed by a staff meeting to unpack the principles. We’ve found it’s seeing your children talking and listening enthusiastically at a high level that enthuses teachers to embrace our three principles of oracy. We also INSET days or give a terrific interactive keynote for a conference. Drawing on years of experience in the field of philosophy for children, we’ll show you how to identify the questions within your curriculum that have the greatest oracy potential.
Sticky Questions Resource
Our year-round, whole school programme. Children take home a juicy philosophical puzzler stuck to their jumper, chat at home and share back at school.
Oracy Training/INSET
Engaging, memorable training that gives all set a toolkit of practical strategies to use immediately in their classroom.
Contact us
Have a question about oracy at your school? Reach out and start a conversation with us!
“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