ORACY - We are a Centre of Excellence in Oracy Education accredited by Voice 21

We are proud to be an Oracy Centre of Excellence school. This recognises that we are are leading the way in providing a high-quality oracy education for students and acting as a beacon of good practice for local schools as well as over 1000 schools nationwide.

Dr Kate Paradine, CEO at Voice 21, says: “The Voice 21 Oracy Centre of Excellence award certifies and celebrates schools who are changing the way they educate. St Saviour's School has demonstrated the quality of oracy education being provided across five areas of school life; their school’s vision, culture, curriculum, learning and impact on students. This “whole school” approach is at the heart of what it means to offer a high-quality oracy education”

Feedback from a Voice 21Programme Lead following a recent visit to our school:

'There is a strong culture of listening across the school. Pupils listen respectfully to each other and all staff have consistent, shared expectations for what constitutes active listening.'

●Routines for talk are built in: there is a big focus on active listening across the school

●There are high expectations for oracy and this is visible in the whole school culture: assemblies, lunchtime talking points, classroom strategies, playground. Staff say that there is a noticeable difference in pupil confidence and ability to articulate ideas.

●Varied groupings are used (pairs, trios, traverse, and whole class) to support all learners (SEN, EAL and the range of attainment in the school).

●All children are included in discussions. Children with specific educational needs are scaffolded and prompted to engage in discussion through sentence stems and adult support. In EYFS, talk tactics have been tailored to ‘talk rubrics’ with corresponding visual aids.

●Oracy displays are meaningful in each classroom - focus talk tactics, sentences stems and guidelines for discussion. These are referred to in lessons.

●Key (tiered) vocabulary is displayed on the walls and used in discussion.

●Across the school, talk tactics and sentence stems are planned for, used and modelled by teachers. The use of language was consistent between staff and students.

●Discussion guidelines and focus talk tactics are referred to by staff to mark and model oracy skills.

●Across teaching and support staff, authentic questioning, probing and clarifying are used to extend pupil responses.