Oracy
“Prioritizing oracy in education ensures that every child, regardless of background, develops a strong, confident voice to share their ideas and thrive in the classroom and beyond.” (Laura Buczko)
Speaking and listening are key skills that are at the core of our approach to education - we want our children to communicate at the highest level.
OFSTED’s Telling the story: The English education subject report (2024) found that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds achieve less well than their peers in all aspects of English and recommended that children be provided with opportunities to practise, refine and apply their spoken language knowledge and skills. This is key in our local area, as the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers in Stockport is greater than the national average (Educational Policy Institute, 2025). The Oracy Education Commission’s We Need To Talk report (2024) goes even further, arguing that oracy should become the ‘Fourth R’ alongside reading, writing and arithmetic, and increase its prominence in the National Curriculum - a move that was backed by 2025 Curriculum Review and more recently confirmed by Education Secretary Lucy Powell. The benefits of a quality oracy education are many, building towards promoting social equity and so closing the disadvantaged gap.
Our curriculum approach
Since September 2024, we are a Voice 21 school, working with the UK’s leading oracy education charity to enhance opportunities for quality speaking and listening in all aspects of our school life. We provide children with an education that allows them to learn about talk, learn to talk and learn through talk.
Our everyday classroom practice makes regular reference to the Oracy Framework, developing children’s speaking and listening skills through four strands: physical, cognitive, linguistic and social & emotional. We have developed a progression of skills based on the framework, which ensures children are building on their skills and understanding overtime. This is exemplified by each year group's Oracy Focuses: a number of targets that are prioritized across a term – taught and practiced explicitly during a weekly class forum slot, with connected references within the curriculum. Each term, all children take part in a Big Talk Opportunity, which draws on the term's Oracy Focuses, and provide opportunities to speak and listen in a variety of contexts and for different purposes.
Talk Tactics are also employed to widen the possibilities of discussion time, building a toolkit that enables children to instigate, build, challenge, clarify, probe and summarise.
Class forum/assembly structure
We believe oracy has an important role to play not just in the classroom, but in all aspects of school life. As a result, we have developed a weekly assembly structure that has student voice at the centre. On Mondays, all children attend a values assembly led by senior leaders which sets the theme for the week. This is then explored further through a class forum and (in KS2) a talk assembly. These two sessions are planned with an oracy focus, giving children the opportunity to put their speaking and listening skills into practice when discussing key issues across our school and the wider world.
Impact
Our approach to oracy has had an instant, obvious and wide-reaching impact with both staff and pupils. This is what they have to say:
“Our recent focus on oracy has really proved what young people can achieve when given the correct tools. The way my Year 3 students can now articulate their thoughts, listen attentively to their classmates and hold a "grown up style" conversation is outstanding. It's a pleasure to see.” (KS2 teacher)
“The talk tactics have completely changed the way my classroom looks when having a class discussion, especially in maths. The improvement in verbal reasoning has been astounding. For me, this has had an even greater impact on their own metacognitive process, which is absolutely key in assisting children with problem solving.” (KS2 teacher)
Beyond Alexandra Park
As Alexandra Park Research School, we hosted a three-year project in collaboration with the Education Endowment Foundation and Stockport Council, including the local NHS Speech & Language team. In response to growing speech & language needs across Stockport, Stockport Speaks facilitated the collaboration of over 40 primary schools (reaching over 50% of schools in our local area), focusing on strengthening evidence-informed approaches to oral language in Early Years and above. Representatives from each school attended training days, as well as visiting Alexandra Park for practice visits.
The feedback we received on both the project and our school's approach to oracy was outstanding. One delegate described Stockport Speaks as "the most worthwhile CPD I've received as a teacher."
In October 2026, we were invited by Voice 21 to present our oracy journey at the Great Oracy Exhibition, the UK's largest oracy event, held in Birmingham.
