Speaking and Listening

 

At Kielder Primary School, we believe that the development of speaking and listening should be carefully planned for and embedded across the curriculum from the moment that children start our school. Our vision for teaching speaking and listening is to empower every child to become confident, articulate, and thoughtful communicators. In our intimate, mixed-age classrooms, we harness the principles of the Voice 21 project to nurture oracy skills through engaging, inclusive, and purposeful practices.

Our curriculum aims to:

1. Cultivate a Communicative Culture: We create an environment where every pupil feels valued and encouraged to express their ideas, feelings, and perspectives. We believe in the power of spoken language to build connections and foster a sense of community.

2. Enhance Active Listening: We develop pupils' ability to listen actively and empathetically, ensuring they can engage meaningfully with others' viewpoints and contribute constructively to conversations.

3. Support Collaborative Learning: We facilitate interactions across different ages, encouraging pupils to work together, share ideas, and learn from one another. Mixed-age discussions and projects enhance mutual respect and collaborative problem-solving.

4. Integrate Oracy Across Subjects: We weave speaking and listening opportunities throughout the curriculum, guided by the Voice 21 framework, to ensure that oracy is embedded in all aspects of learning, from formal presentations to informal group activities.

5. Celebrate Individual Voices: We recognise and honour the diverse backgrounds and experiences of our pupils. We strive to provide a platform for each child to share their unique perspectives and learn from others.

6. Build Confidence and Resilience: We foster self-assurance in speaking and resilience in receiving feedback. Our supportive approach helps pupils grow into effective communicators who approach challenges with confidence.

 

We carefully plan for speaking and listening at various points in each lesson in every subject. We use talk partners and word walls which are both carefully planned for and implemented through subjects. 

 

Opportunities to develop and hone children’s oracy skills are embedded not only in the English curriculum but also across the wider curriculum at Kielder Primary School and Nursery. We are resourceful in our planning of topics and look to include learning end points involving speaking and listening wherever possible such as through discussions, debates, performances and presentations.  Children practise speaking for a variety of purposes and audiences, adapting their language appropriately as well as their intonation, tone, volume and actions, and are able to work individually or in small or larger groups with peers or older or younger children.