Through our curriculum (in line with the National Curriculum) our pupils are taught to:

• listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers
• ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge
• use relevant strategies to build their vocabulary
• articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions
• give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings
• maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments
• use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas
• speak audibly and fluently with an increasing command of Standard English
• participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play/improvisations and debates
• gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener(s)
• consider and evaluate different viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others
• select and use appropriate registers for effective communication

Spoken Language Across the Curriculum

Helicopter Stories 

In our EYFS, our children are introduced to 'helicopter stories' to develop their story telling and knowledge of story language. The children decide on their story as a group and it is scribed by their teacher and the children are then encouraged to see themselves as authors and then perform their stories to others. This is then built on throughout our daily story times in KS1, where we learn stories with actions and then perform them. 

Drama

Across the school, we use a range of drama activities to support the children's learning, for example hot seating, role play and conscience alley. We use these activities to allow the children to get in role and develop their understanding of a range of characters and stories. 

Presenting

As a part of our TASC approach, all children are encouraged to find solutions to problems across the curriculum. They then present these solutions to the rest of the class and make choices about how to support their presentation e.g. with leaflets or PowerPoints. Also our children are encouraged to present their home learning to the class. We also encourage children to present their writing to the class and expect other children evaluate the effectiveness of their presentation. 

Vocabulary

Our vocabulary is carefully planned across the curriculum to support a careful progression, for more information about key vocabulary taught in each year group please visit the individual subject pages. We also have discussion prompts in each classroom to encourage high quality discussion in each curriculum area. 

Debating club

Pupils within Year 5 and 6 have the opportunity to attend debating club, where they discuss current issues.