Oracy

At Summerhill Academy, there is a whole school commitment to creating a culture in which children both learn to talk and learn through talk, using a range of communication skills across a range of contexts. We call this Oracy. All members of our school community feel heard and have the confidence and emotional intelligence to communicate constructively.

Opportunities for high quality talk across the school day ensure that our children improve their skills over time. The acquisition of aspirational new vocabulary is a high priority and is taught explicitly.

Children are taught to use their voice to reason, negotiate, present and explore ideas to support their learning across the curriculum and to prepare them for life in modern Britain.

The focus on effective oracy is extended beyond the classroom to all areas of school life. Children are supported to use their communication skills across the school by adults who orally model appropriate sentence stems e.g. lunch time and office staff, and visual communication prompts which are placed where our children are most likely to need them.  The knowledge and use of a range of oracy skills supports the development of our children’s confidence and self-esteem, building a greater sense of community and belonging in school.

We are proud to work alongside Voice 21, the UK’s oracy education charity, to further develop a whole school culture which values and celebrates our pupils’ voices. As a whole school priority, we have specialist leadership for oracy within the Academy, developing and implementing best practice and supporting of pupils to learn to talk and through talk.

Read more about our successful collaboration with Voice 21 in the Impact Report 2022-23