Communication is at the heart of the curriculum design at Templemoor Infant and Nursery School. The school recognises that talk plays a fundamental role in learning and as a result, oracy is threaded throughout all areas of the curriculum.
A commitment to teach children the communication skills that they will need to thrive and succeed in the wider world is of utmost importance. All children have a right to be listened to and heard. Through our Unicef Rights Respecting work children are taught that everyone has a right to a voice. “Every child has the right to have a say in all matters affecting then and to have their views taken seriously”. Article 12. Children at Templemoor Infant and Nursery School are taught that their voice is powerful and can be used to campaign for change.
Our vision is for all children, regardless of their starting points, to be confident communicators who are comfortable to discuss, explain, reason and debate. We aim for children to leave Templemoor Infant and Nursery School with an expansive vocabulary that is embedded and enables them to succeed academically and socially.
Oracy progression maps have been designed for EYFS to Year Two using the Oracy Framework. They focus on children developing skills in the four strands of oracy – Physical, Linguistic, Cognitive and Social and Emotional.
These skills ladders have been carefully sequenced to enable children to leave the school with the oracy skills they need to succeed whilst providing them with opportunities to speak for a range of purposes and to different audiences. Teachers use the skills ladders to outline the oracy skills that need to be taught in a particular year group.
The school has developed a whole school culture of oracy. Children regularly listen to, and enjoy high-quality storytimes and poems. Children in each year group learn carefully selected rhymes and poems. Teachers regularly use learning partners during lessons to develop speaking and listening skills and encourage collaboration. All Year groups regularly present assemblies to parents, sharing their classwork. Children in Year 2 all have a speaking part in the Christmas show. All children at Templemoor Infants have a ‘Spotlight’ which is progressive throughout the school. In Reception children take it in turns to bring in a favourite object to talk about, in Year 1 children build on this by bringing in a favourite object or talking about a club or sports that they do. In Year 2 children can choose any topic that they are interested in and talk about this to their classmates, using props or objects to support them.
Monitoring ensures that throughout their time at school, the curriculum provides children with the opportunity to talk for a range of purposes as well as to different audiences. Our teaching approach to teaching and learning harnesses the power of talk to stimulate interest, develop thinking and enables children to engage in meaningful conversations both with their peers as well as their teachers and other adults in the school. High standards of English are modelled by the teachers and children are expected to follow suit.
Conversations with the children at Templemoor Infant and Nursery School, demonstrate that they are confident communicators who can articulate their views with their peers as well as to a wider audience. Many children are engaged and enthusiastic to share their news and ideas about relevant issues in the world.
Monitoring shows that classrooms are rich in talk and provide children with many opportunities to take part in speaking and listening. Sentence stems are used regularly to scaffold talk and encourage children to articulate their ideas clearly.
Children develop their skills in the four strands of oracy throughout their time at Templemoor Infant and Nursery School. As well as developing their oracy skills children have had opportunities and experiences to apply the skills they have acquired to talk for a range of purposes as well as to a wider audience. The high quality oracy outcomes children produce through projects demonstrate that children show an awareness of their audience and purpose and are confident to use ambitious language which they can apply in their writing as evidenced from book looks. Many children understand the importance of language and have a wide and rich vocabulary which they can apply appropriately for a range of purposes.