English: Oracy and Vocabulary
Our teaching of English includes phonics, reading, writing, handwriting and EGPS (English, punctuation, grammar and spelling). Please find here the primary national curriculum for English:
At Kirkstall Valley, we are committed to empowering children to find their voice and empower them become articulate, confident people with the capacity to succeed beyond the classroom. We are proud to have partnered with Voice 21 Oracy Schools charity to embed high-quality oracy education into our curriculum.
What is oracy?
Oracy is the ability to articulate ideas, develop understanding and engage with others through spoken language. Oracy empowers children to become effective speakers and listeners and helps develop communication skills which can transform a child’s learning and help them to find their voice in both school and life.
How do we teach oracy?
Through a high quality oracy education students learn through talk and learn how to talk. This is when they develop and deepen their subject knowledge and understanding through talk in the classroom, which has been planned, designed, modelled, scaffolded and structured to enable them to learn the skills needed to talk effectively.
Opportunities for oracy are appropriately woven into all aspects of the curriculum, from quick bursts of discussion with talk partners to larger-scale presentations and debates. Children are encouraged to use sentence stems and speak in full sentences, using an appropriate register, across a variety of subjects.
For further information about our Oracy curriculum, please speak to Mr Lund or Mrs Gautrey.
Our governors with responsibility for English are Zesh Khan and Colleen Jackson.
Vocabulary
As a school, we value the importance of vocabulary in all lessons. We believe that it is an essential competent of learning and should underpin all aspects of the curriculum. Teaching vocabulary enriches children and empowers them to understand new concepts and broaden their thinking of the world around them. Children learn to become more adept at using more complex language both orally and in their writing.
Vocabulary is taught discreetly in Key Stage Two. Learning is focused on Tier Two words: high-frequency words which appear across different subject disciplines but children may not experience in everyday language (eg. examine, crucial, persistent).
Tier One: Common words used in everyday language (eg. through, know, chair)
Tier Two: High-frequency words academic words found in texts and useful across multiple learning domains (eg. environment, national, possession)
Tier Three: Subject-specific words (eg. photosynthesis, igneous, denominator)
Children also learn daily vocabulary in shared reading lessons to support their reading. These words are displayed in classrooms alongside definitions and examples to aid children’s learning.
For further information about our English curriculum, please speak to Mrs Gautrey.
Our governors with responsibility for English are Zesh Khan and Colleen Jackson.
