We are a Voice 21 Oracy Centre of Excellence

We are proud to have been recognised as a Voice 21 Oracy Centre of Excellence for our work in developing pupil's oracy (speaking and listening) skills. 

Being accredited as a Voice 21 Centre of Excellence certifies and celebrates that we are leading the way in providing a high-quality oracy education for children and acting as a beacon of good practice for over 1000 schools nationwide.

In Voice 21 Oracy Schools, children learn the oracy skills they need to succeed in school and in life.

At Samares School, every voice is heard and every voice is valued. You can read our Centre of Excellence report by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.

Why oracy matters?

By teaching our children to become effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them.

• Speaking and listening skills are critical foundations for reading and writing.
• Students with better oral language skills are more likely to achieve the highest grades in GCSE Maths and English.
• Young people with good communication skills are less likely to have mental health difficulties.

As a Voice 21 Oracy Centre of Excellence, we put oracy at the heart of our teaching and learning across all subject areas, enabling pupils to develop and deepen their knowledge and understanding through talk in the classroom.

We support our pupils to become articulate communicators who are able to present themselves confidently across a range of settings and contexts, from group discussions to formal presentations.

 

Our Oracy Curriculum

Talk has a central role to our approach to teaching and learning. We are intentional and deliberate in  teaching of vocabulary from Nursery to Year 6.  We use a variety of Voice21 structures to support different types of talk and develop opportunities for children to perform and present their ideas and learning using their skills and knowledge in effective speaking and listening.

We believe that oracy enables children to learn to talk and  learn through talk - it helps to consolidate learning, build and challenge on the ideas of others as well as their own, and helps children become articulate and effective communicators. 

Oracy has an important part to play in the Personal Development of our pupils. Through the teaching of oracy, we equip our pupils with the tools they need to be able to talk about their feelings and emotions which helps develop skills of self-regulation. This links with our work around the Zones of Regulation. 

We plan to develop oracy skills progressively - please see our Oracy Progression Map in the link at the bottom of this page to see how these skills develop and link with wider learning opportunities at school. Oracy is intentionally planned for across our curriculum and will include a variety of oracy outcomes - through exploratory and presentational talk.

 

 

Oracy opportunities at home

Each week, we send home a Samares Gets Talking! activity for children to complete with their families and friends. We introduce a discussion topic in assembly, and children have the opportunity at lunchtimes to discuss their ideas. On a Friday, the discussion point is sent home with some 'top tips' for parents to support high quality conversations at home - giving children an opportunity to further practice their oracy skills. 

Click this link to see the Samares Gets Talking! resources for this academic year.

Achievements

2023 saw the first Speak Up Speak Out Jersey competition (a competition where children in Year 6 had to deliver a speech on a given topic) - 12 schools took part across Jersey, with the winning pupil from each school selected to share their speech at the Raddison Hotel in front of a judging panel and children from Year 5 from participating schools. We are extremely proud that our entry to the competition, Milli, won the event, displaying fantastic presentational oracy skills, speaking passionately about the issue of racism.

Miss Burton's research project won a 'Highly Commended' award in the Voice21 Douglas Barnes Award. Her research project, focused on developing the teaching of vocabulary to improve writing outcomes, was also chosen to be published in an academic journal. 

Mr Lumley was invited to speak at the Kernow English Hub's Annual Conference - speaking to over 100 schools across Cornwall, Mr Lumley shared the successes of Samares School in developing a language rich environment from Nursery to Year 6.

In June 2024 we were awarded Centre of Excellence accreditation. We are one of 30 schools out of 1400 across the UK who have been awarded this. 

 

 

About Voice 21

Voice 21 is the UK’s oracy education charity. It works with schools to transform the learning and life chances of young people through talk so that all children can use their voice for success in school and in life. Since its launch in 2015 it has worked with over 1200 schools and 10,000 teachers across the UK, reaching more than 290,000 students through its work.

Find out more about oracy and Voice 21 here.