What is Oracy?

Oracy - A simple definition

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)
  • Group work
  • Structured questioning
  • Debating
  • Collaborative team-challenges
  • Peer to peer feedback

...and many more.

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Why does oracy matter?

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.

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"Watching Tom's workshop I was amazed at how it hit EVERY box about oracy..."

How do we work with schools?

Since 2008, we've with hundreds of schools to help all pupils become more articulate, thoughtful speakers without adding to teacher workload.

How do we do it?

  1. We help teachers embed new questions into their curriculum - ones that unlock pupils' curiosity and prove irresistable to talk about
  2. We help teachers find opportunities to facilitate "Thinkers Games" - ways to make thinking physical and help children throw themselves into the joyful argy-bargy of argument.
  3. We help teachers create the best conditions for classroom talk, such as using the principle of "Playground Confident, Classroom Shy" to empower children who clam up in the classroom

Everything is tailored for your school and there's something for every budget. If you wish, we can use the principles of Philosophy Circles to create an even-greater legacy for thinking.

The difficulty was getting the message across to my colleagues. I hosted a short staff meeting, but unfortunately most seemed to have been quickly forgotten.

Strategies to help every pupil: the 12 Principles of our Oracy Toolkit

Hundreds of schools trust us to help improve listening, develop independent thinking and help every child find their voice.

All by showing teachers easier, more effective ways to work with their existing curriculum, not piling more on their plate, including:

1. Playground Confident, Classroom Shy - how to make the most of playground energy to put children at ease in the classroom.

2. Small Talk Before Big Talk - why we need to break our silence early before we talk in front of everyone

3. Sides Then Selves - why for some children, talking as someone else is easier than talking as themselves

4. Stretch - how the cognitive side of speaking fear can be overcome

5. Exposure - how to create “cover” to help everyone feel at ease

6. Shrink - why for children to be more, we have to be less. And how to do it.

7. Serve and Return - what the thirty-million word gap told us about oracy (and it’s not to do with the words you hear)

8. Co-Coaching Questions - how a simple set of open questions can push for deeper thinking and fearless talking

9. Talk Three Times - ways to help everyone rehearse their idea twice before making it public

10. Speaking Without Thinking - a failsafe way to overcome the “I dunno” card

11. Unwrongification - strategies to remove the fear of getting it wrong

12. PRACTICE over performance - why everyone in class - teacher included - should prioritise practice over performance

You can learn more about our framework here.

Each principle of the toolkit is explained in our simple minibook "Help Me Find My Voice", which is available now in our shop

Help Me Find My Voice

This practical guide to oracy explores why kids don’t talk in class – from kids who are “playground confident, classroom shy” to those who need to be someone else before they can be themselves. It’s fifteen years of experience of getting kids talking, boiled down to twelve principles you can use in every setting.

We hope this book arms you with the strategies you need to make one of the biggest differences you can – helping a child find their voice.

 

Receive your free set of oracy resources today! Join 17,000 teachers by adding your name and email below.

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Fancy a chat about it?

No obligation - just a chat about what might be possible!

Staff have put it into place straight away, particularly as it was focussed on building it into our exisiting curriculum and approaches.

Interested in training?

Contact us today to arrange a chat - choose from any of the options below.

Message us using the form on the right.

Call us on 01245 830123

Email office@thephilosophyman.com

Feedback from recent training. Can you spot the buzzword?

"I cannot describe the buzz and vibe from the staff, all down to you."

"You really did create a huge buzz in school, which is a difficult shout on the first day back! You covered everything we wanted out of the training and gave us mountains of material to use in class.  I loved the fact you gave each phase some planning time to discuss ideas and plan sessions and then trial them out of colleagues.  You have definitely given us some inspiration and I am very excited to see what happens next."

"There was a buzz during the staff meeting, which for any member of staff attending a staff meeting knows this is a rare thing! All the staff said how enthused and excited they felt to get back into their classrooms and try out the methods they had been shown."

"The questions raised interested everyone and there was a real buzz in the room. Our training was full of practical activities and games, with the just the right amount of discussion about teaching techniques interspersed. What an inspiring day!"

"It is us who would like to thank you. It was such an inspirational INSET and the staff were truly excited. The enthusiasm and buzz is palpable!"

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