Oracy is the deliberate, structured development of children’s speaking and listening skills so they can communicate with confidence, clarity and empathy. In the Voice 21 approach, oracy is treated as a teachable, assessable discipline—just like reading or writing—built around four key strands: physical, linguistic, cognitive and social emotional. Voice 21 emphasises that high quality talk is essential for thinking, learning and building relationships, and that every child deserves explicit teaching and regular opportunities to practise these skills. Through routines such as discussion guidelines, talk tactics and structured dialogue, pupils learn how to articulate ideas, reason with others, listen actively and participate meaningfully in group talk. In this model, oracy is not an add on but a whole school commitment to ensuring all pupils find their voice and use it effectively in the classroom and beyond.
Oracy is articulating ideas, developing understanding and engaging with others through speaking, listening and communication.
We actively invest teaching time into creating "talk-rich" classrooms, valuing every student voice, boosting confidence, and preparing our students for their futures.
By teaching students to become effective speakers and listeners, we empower them to understand themselves, each other, and the world around them better.
As a Voice 21 Oracy School, we are placing 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.
In Voice 21 Oracy Schools:
All classes have key-stage appropriate talk guidelines. These are displayed in the classroom and consistently referred to whenever a pupil is engaging in any activity requiring speaking and listening skills.
Our pupils are encouraged to speak in full, coherent sentences when sharing their ideas and using spoken language. In all lessons, pupils have key sentence stems which they are encouraged to use to help them articulate their ideas.
Talk Tactics are used in all lessons to encourage pupils to think strategically about their contributions to group talk. Providing pupils with roles to play in discussions helps to manage talk and encourages the development of certain speaking and listening skills.
Our pupils are celebrated for their use of Oracy skills and get teacher and peer feedback on their talk and listening. At Manston St James, we give pupils Oracy stickers to celebrate success, this is used as immediate feedback in the classroom. Oracy celebration worships occur every two weeks, this is a great way to give certificates specific to a talk focus and is celebrated in front of their Key stage and parents.
