Articulate

St Mary’s: Our Vision for Oracy

At St Mary’s, we believe that every member of our school community has the right to have their voice heard and to feel valued. We are committed to supporting all pupils to develop the confidence, clarity, and emotional intelligence required to communicate effectively. Rooted in our mission to help every child discover their God-given potential, we recognize that finding one’s voice is a vital tool for empowerment, social mobility and lifelong success.

Intent: Oracy for All

Our oracy curriculum is an ambitious, school-wide priority guided by the principles of Voice 21. We view oracy not just as a skill, but as a core foundation for cognitive development and academic achievement. Our intent is for all pupils to:

  • Speak with Clarity and Purpose: Articulating complex ideas with precision and using sophisticated academic vocabulary.

  • Listen Actively and Critically: Understanding, questioning, and responding thoughtfully to others to develop deep reasoning skills.

  • Collaborate and Debate: Working with peers to explore, challenge, and problem-solve, ensuring every child has the “voice” to succeed in school and life.

  • Bridge the Gap to Writing: Using oral rehearsal as a fundamental “muscle” to build the sentence structures and vocabulary needed for high-quality composition.

Implementation: The Four Strands of Talk

At St Mary’s, oracy is not a discrete lesson; it is interleaved across the entire curriculum. We utilize the Voice 21 framework to ensure pupils develop across the physical, linguistic, cognitive and social-emotional strands of talk.

A Progressive Journey of Voice

We ensure that oracy skills are systematically developed, with each stage building on the Strong Foundations of the previous year:

  • EYFS: Early Narrative & Oracy: Through language-focused play and the “Over and Over” approach, children internalize story patterns and “Tier 2” vocabulary, developing the confidence to retell and share experiences.

  • Key Stage 1: Constructing Clarity: Pupils refine oral sentence structures and reasoning. We explicitly link oracy to phonics and reading, ensuring children can say a sentence before they write it.

  • Lower Key Stage 2: Justification & Precision: Pupils begin to justify answers and discuss complex texts, consolidating the grammar and Alan Peat Sentence Types taught through CUSP to bridge spoken and written language.

  • Upper Key Stage 2: Rhetoric & Analysis: Pupils develop evaluative speaking skills, engaging in formal debates and presentations. Oracy is used to plan and refine writing, ensuring a sophisticated “authorial voice” in their composition.

Securing Foundational Oracy

We believe that academic talk is the key to closing the attainment gap. By giving sustained attention to the “mechanics” of talk, we ensure all pupils – regardless of their starting point -become skilled communicators.

Focus Area Strategy & Approach
Vocabulary Instruction Explicit teaching of “Tier 2” and “Tier 3” words, providing pupils with the “word wealth” needed for academic discussion.
Structured Talk Use of Cooperative Learning strategies and “Sentence Stems” to ensure all students participate in high-quality, respectful debate.
Oral Rehearsal Interleaving oracy with Writing; pupils use talk to experiment with Alan Peat structures before committing them to paper.
Disciplinary Oracy Teaching pupils to “talk like a scientist” or “argue like a historian,” using subject-specific language in authentic contexts.

Impact: Our Outcomes

Through our carefully sequenced and integrated approach, pupils at St Mary’s emerge as articulate, confident, and empathetic citizens.

  • Confident Communicators: Our pupils graduate with the competence to adapt their speech for any audience, from playground to presentation.

  • Analytical Listeners: Students possess the emotional intelligence to listen, value others’ perspectives, and engage in meaningful social dialogue.

  • Fluent Writers: By mastering oral composition, our pupils display greater fluency, accuracy and creativity in their written work.

  • Empowered Individuals: Our children leave St Mary’s having found their voice. They are prepared for the next steps in their learning and life, ready to share their light and influence the world around them.

At St Mary’s, we don’t just teach children to talk; we teach them that their voice has the power to change the world.