Best Practice

Using oracy to build belonging: Ideas and advice

Oracy education Curriculum Quality First Teaching Lesson planning
Oracy is a key skill for young people. It is also a crucial part of building students’ sense of belonging. Jo Arrow offers some ideas to help us put oracy at the centre of our teaching and students’ learning
Speak up: Giving students the chance to develop their speaking skills and to find their 'authentic voice' can build their sense of belonging in school - Adobe Stock

One of the biggest challenges facing schools today is the disconnection many students are feeling from their own school communities. Whether this disengagement manifests itself in poor behaviour, poor attendance, or underachievement, it is by far our biggest problem.

So, how can we get our students to feel a sense of belonging? To feel valued, included and heard? Surely before we can answer this, we must consider a more important question: how can students be heard and valued if they haven’t had the opportunity to establish and refine their own voice?

For some students, struggling to belong causes them to opt out of their school all together. Instead they choose the comfort (or even the discomfort) of their own homes.

The Education Endowment Foundation reminded us last year that attendance percentages are “only the beginning of the story” (see Morrissey, 2024). It is a vicious cycle – they feel isolated from the school community, they don’t attend, they disengage, and fall behind in the content, they don’t achieve, their mental health suffers, they don’t attend.

We could spend a long time discussing why different students feel that they do not belong. It may well be a remnant of the disruption to their routine caused by Covid. Maybe it is simply a result of their current all-consuming digital climate. Or could it be that they just don’t enjoy or feel connected to the learning?

The latter is often the most common response from students themselves. Some also suggest that they don’t feel connected to their school – that they simply have to follow instructions for most of their school day. Instructions are important, but there needs to be a balance between this and dialogic talk.

 

Giving students opportunities to talk

Giving students frequent opportunities to engage in discussion is paramount in helping them feel connected. It also develops their cognitive processes, as well as allowing them a chance to establish and justify their own views.

A student’s sense of belonging should be created by building a shared culture and language within school. The power of the spoken word to raise self-confidence and self-awareness is key; students have to have opportunities to speak, find their voice, feel heard.

As educators, we know the power of positive talk. However, often students are not explicitly taught how to use spoken language. Giving students the skills to use language confidently and in a range of contexts is vital to support their sense of wellbeing and connectedness.

Once this feeling of belonging is established, everything else will follow. This is recognised in the corporate world, as the Harvard Business Review discussed recently (Carr et al, 2019): “Social belonging is a fundamental human need, hardwired into our DNA. If workers feel like they belong, companies reap substantial bottom-line benefits. High belonging was linked to a whopping 56% increase in job performance, a 50% drop in turnover risk, and a 75% reduction in sick days.”

So productivity grows when people feel good within themselves, when they have a sense of contentment, place and purpose in the world. It’s not rocket science – we perform better when we feel better.

The oracy experts from the charity Voice21 recognise this very same thing in the classroom: “The cognitive benefits of oracy are reflected in the robust evidence that quality classroom talk has a measurable impact on academic attainment.” (Stott & Gaunt, 2018)

So how can we use oracy to help our young people feel empowered and valued within their school communities? The key is to put oracy at the centre of our teaching and their learning. Here are some suggestions for your classroom.

 

Model positive language

The language we see, hear and use in our learning environment must be positive, reassuring and engaging. We are often the primary voice young people hear for the majority of the day. What we say matters. Here are some strategies.

Speak like an expert: Show students how to sound knowledgeable using Tier 3 vocabulary in order to be the expert in the room. Once you have modelled an example of this, structure it for them to do the same. Students are hearing new language all of the time at school, but often don’t have the chance to practise using this vocabulary verbally.

Oracy praise: Use positive feedback but make it specifically about their oracy skills. Don’t just reward the content, reward how they deliver it. This praise can take on many forms, as long as it is recognised by the students as significant.

Student voices: Give all students a voice. Use assemblies, clubs, time in lessons to hear students speak about their own experiences. This can be particularly valuable for specific cohorts, such as students with English as an additional language or those with SEND, or indeed LGBT+ students. Schools need to offer a range of opportunities for a variety of voices to be heard and expressed. This is how we feel part of something. No matter how different we all may be, we still feel connected. Let school become a platform for sharing their diverse experiences.

 

Safe speaking and listening

Give students opportunities to talk and listen in the safety of the classroom. Support discussions with structures that allow students to feel confident when using exploratory talk.

Speaking stems: Use speaking stems as often as writing stems. Give students structure when forming verbal responses. For example:

  • “In my opinion this is most valuable because…”
  • “To build on your answer I would…”

Speaking roles: These are fantastic to organise exploratory talk and give it structure. Allocate students specific roles to have in the discussion so they understand their purpose. For example, “the challenger”, “the prober”, “the summariser”, etc.

Develop empathetic, active listeners: Empathy is key to belonging. We must listen to and understand each other in order to connect with each other.

 

Explicitly teach talk

We often assume students know “how” to talk, but they often need explicit instruction – just as they do for numeracy and literacy.

 

Use the SHAPE formula: Speak, Hands, Articulate, Project and Eye-contact:

  • Speak in full sentences, even when only a one-word answer is required: “The answer is x because…”
  • Hands away from the mouth and face. Keep your body language confident.
  • Articulate (don’t mumble). Use thinking time to allow students to form the answer before they have to articulate it.
  • Project your voice.
  • Eye-contact with your listeners in order to make connections with your audience.

Presentational opportunities: The anxiety young people feel when speaking in front of others is widespread so support students when preparing them for this. The more opportunities there are for presentational oracy, the more “normal” it will become. Don’t leave them stranded without the skills to present. Place value on rehearsal time.

Use the Oracy Skills Framework: Familiarise staff and students with the framework published by Oracy Cambridge and Voice 21 (2020). Use this in the classroom regularly. It consists of four key elements:

  • Physical skills: Pitch, pace, pause, projection, eye contact, body language.
  • Linguistic skills: Vocabulary choice, grammar, register, rhetorical questioning.
  • Cognitive skills: Structure, sequencing, building the thinking behind the talk.
  • Social/emotional skills: Turn-taking, active listening, interactions, flair, audience.

 

Oracy through enrichment

Make oracy-related enrichment opportunities wide and varied and accessible to all. Here are some suggestions for extra-curricular activities to promote oracy skills (see further information for links).

  • Fill your school with the arts as opportunities in arts subjects lend themselves to oracy and self-expression.
  • Debating societies: Teaching students debating skills is extremely powerful. Have a listen to the Oracy Commission’s August 2024 podcast episode with Lewis Iwu, world university debating champion, on the value of persuasive speech in the working world.
  • Become a Royal Shakespeare Company Associate School and gain access to CPD experiences for staff as well as collaborative student performances with RSC practitioners.
  • Student radio stations and podcasts.
  • National Theatre Connections: Choose from a range of plays and put on your best performance with a chance to perform at the National Theatre.
  • Public speaking competitions, such as the English Speaking Union Churchill Competition or the Jack Petchey’s Speak Out Challenge.

 

Final thoughts

The power of talk is transformational. As human beings it is our number one method of communication, and everyone feels valued when they are listened to.

If we want our students to feel connected to their education, we have to build this sense of belonging in our schools, especially for our most vulnerable. The most valuable place to start is by supporting our young people to find and develop their own authentic voice.

  • Jo Arrow is head of performing arts and oracy lead at Thomas Gainsborough School in the east of England, part of the Unity Schools Partnership.

 

Further information & resources

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