Vocabulary and Oracy

Oracy 

Our school’s vision for oracy is:​

​

At Blackpool, we believe that everyone has the right to feel heard and valued. We will support every member of our school community to have the confidence and emotional intelligence to communicate effectively, build positive relationships and prepare for their next steps in life.​

We have undertaken Voice 21 Oracy School training to further transform and improve oracy teaching and learning across your school and enable all of our students to access and benefit from a high-quality oracy education. Our philosophy and intent for our children's oracy and communication align with the view below from Voice 21:

'In school, oracy is a powerful tool for learning; by teaching students to become more effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. It is also a route to social mobility, empowering all students, not just some, to find their voice to succeed in school and life.' 

Each class has a set of discussion guidelines that help to set the structures and guidance for effective oracy to happen. Tools such as Talk Tokens encourage pupils to be effective listeners and to contribute to oracy activities. 

Teachers plan to develop a range of oracy skills through other subjects, but may also plan to teach the skills through discrete oracy tasks. 

The following Oracy Frameworks are used to match oracy activity and skills in an age-appropriate way. 

Vocabulary

The teaching of vocabulary and the acquisition of language is a school priority as we recognise that pupils acquisition and command of vocabulary are key to their learning and progress, across the curriculum. We know that vocabulary acquisition is vital to ensure a good level of development and growth both academically, socially and emotionally, and will increase pupil life-chances in later life. 

Vocabulary forms a key part of all planning, teaching and learning. The recall, understanding and application of prior vocabulary acquisition as well as new vocabulary learnt, is at the heart of assessment for and of learning. 

Teaches plan explicit lessons to explore and develop vocabulary as well as being a focus in all curriculum areas. 

The learning environment is used to ensure vocabulary is celebrated and accessible, with visual cues to support children with any language, communication or interaction difficulties. 

The policies below contain more detail about how vocabulary is planned into teaching and learning.