Oracy at Hillary Primary School 

At Hillary Primary School, we recognise the fundamental importance of Oracy in developing our pupils’ communication skills, confidence, and academic success. 

Oracy, as defined by Voice 21, is articulating ideas, developing understanding and engaging with others through speaking, listening and communication. 

Our vision is to empower every pupil to become a confident, articulate and active communicator, both in the classroom and in the wider world. 

We aim to: 

• Develop pupils’ spoken language skills to enhance learning, creativity and critical thinking. 

• Develop articulate, confident, and thoughtful communicators 

• Foster a positive and inclusive speaking and listening culture within our school. 

• Equip pupils with Oracy skills for future success in education, employment and life. 

• Embed Oracy in our teaching, learning, curriculum and assessment. 

• Embed oracy as a key driver of curriculum delivery, thinking and learning through talk. 

• Use structured classroom talk to raise attainment and improve vocabulary, grammar, reasoning and collaboration. 

• Create an inclusive, talk-rich culture in which every voice is heard and valued. 

• To enable children with an EHCP or with SEND needs to make good progress in spoken communication from their starting points, through carefully planned support and scaffolding. 

• For all children to become effective listeners who are able to respectfully navigate group situations and who are able to challenge and build on other pupils’ view in a constructive and purposeful way. 

At Hillary Primary School we use the Oracy framework that was developed by The  

University of Cambridge and Voice 21 as the base of our curriculum.  

This framework breaks Oracy into four strands:  

Please see our Oracy Policy and Oracy Progression document for more details about what Oracy looks like at Hillary Primary School.