Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language. 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.
Through a high quality oracy education students learn through talk and to talk. This is when they develop and deepen their subject knowledge and understanding through talk in the classroom, which has been planned, designed, modelled, scaffolded and structured to enable them to learn the skills needed to talk effectively.
The deliberate, explicit and systematic teaching of oracy across phases and throughout the curriculum will support children and young people to make progress in the four strands of oracy outlined in the Oracy Framework.
Developed by Voice 21, the Oracy Benchmarks provide a framework to identify, guide and empower teachers who are developing and refining their oracy practice, whether within their own classroom or as part of a school-wide approach.
The Teacher Oracy Benchmarks define excellent classroom practice for oracy. Teachers create the culture of their classroom and based on the needs of their students they make choices every day about what to teach and how to teach it.
The School Oracy Benchmarks articulate the strategic decisions to be made by school leaders to ensure every child in their school receives a high quality oracy education. They reflect the key levers for change available to a school’s leadership, including the steps needed to create the conditions to enable every teacher to meet the Teacher Oracy Benchmarks.
On entry to school, disadvantaged children’s spoken language development is significantly lower than their more advantaged peers
These gaps grow as children move through school. Widening from just a few months aged six, to five years’ difference by the age of 14.
On leaving school, children with poor verbal communication skills are less likely to find employment and more likely to suffer from mental health difficulties.
“Every student has something to say. It’s the job of a school to help students find their voice, confidence and poise.”
Oli de Botton, Headteacher, School 21
5 months progress was gained, across a year, by students who participated EEF Evaluation of Oral Language Interventions
Teaching children to talk together in order to solve problems improves their reasoning skills, not only when working as a group, but also when working independently.
Mercer, Dawes and Weigerif, 1999
“Young people with poor communication skills are] one and a half times more likely to have mental health difficulties, even after taking account of a range of other factors that might have played a part.”
Communications Trust, Talking about a Generation, 2017
“When children and young people cannot express themselves verbally they may resort to attempting to communicate through their behaviours, either externalising (loud, aggressive, physical) or internalising (withdrawn, low mood), or a combination.”
Dr Fiona Pienaar, Speaking Frankly, 2016
50% of business were unsatisfied by school leavers communication skills, the CBI and Pearson’s 2016 report found. CBI & Pearson, 2016
“Essential life skills such as confidence, motivation, resilience and communication are associated with better academic outcomes and better prospects in the workplace, and there is an increasing emphasis on their value, given labour market trends towards automation.”
The Sutton Trust, 2017
“We found that highly extraverted people – those who were more confident, sociable or assertive – had a 25% higher chance of being in a high-earning job (over £40,000 per year), with the odds being higher for men than women.”
The Sutton Trust, A Winning Personality, 2016
“You are the only second chance for some children to have a rich language experience. If these children are not getting it at school, they are not getting it.”
Neil Mercer, Emeritus Professor, University of Cambridge
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