Oracy at Sea View

The purpose of Oracy

The national curriculum for English reflects the importance of spoken language in pupils’ development across the whole curriculum – cognitively, socially and linguistically. Spoken language underpins the development of reading and writing. The quality and variety of language that pupils hear and speak are vital for developing their vocabulary and grammar and their understanding for reading and writing. Teachers should therefore ensure the continual development of pupils’ confidence and competence in spoken language and listening skills. Pupils should develop a capacity to explain their understanding of books and other reading, and to prepare their ideas before they write. They must be assisted in making their thinking clear to themselves as well as to others, and teachers should ensure that pupils build secure foundations by using discussion to probe and remedy their misconceptions. Pupils should also be taught to understand and use the conventions for discussion and debate.

All pupils should be enabled to participate in and gain knowledge, skills and understanding associated with the artistic practice of drama. Pupils should be able to adopt, create and sustain a range of roles, responding appropriately to others in role. They should have opportunities to improvise, devise and script drama for one another and a range of audiences, as well as to rehearse, refine, share and respond thoughtfully to drama and theatre performances.

2023 - 2024

Nursery

Reception

Year 1

Wild Debate!

Whilst reading Wild, we read to the point of the story where the little girl was taken out of the forest. We asked the children if they agreed with the men taking the girl out of the forest.

We then had a class debate, where the children listened carefully to each other and decided whether they were for or against the men taking the girl. The children listened carefully to their peers and responded with thoughtful responses.   

We have been reading The Rainbow Fish in our English lessons. As part of this topic, we have written in the role of different characters, including the Little Blue Fish after the Rainbow Fish had upset him.

We discussed vocabulary and different ways to express emotions through language.

Year 2

The Great of London!!!

In Year 2 we have been learning about the Great Fire of London. At the start of our topic we wanted to know more about the Great Fire of London so we became reporters and asked questions about the events we might want to research.  We worked in pairs taking turns to ask our questions to each other and shared our ideas as part of the wider class.  We then took to our research, finding out everything we could about the events that lead to the fatal fire.  Finally we explored the features of a newspaper and extended our vocabulary to include subject specific language in our reports.  Once they were ready we performed them using a green screen to transport us to the BBC newsroom!  Follow the QR links to have a look!

Year 3

Year 4

As part of our learning about Edward Tulane, we wrote thought bubbles in role as a character and recited them for your enjoyment!

Year 5

Visit from our Local MP!

Today we had an important visitor in school, our local MP, Emma Lewell-Buck. We held our very own Prime's Minister's Debate in which we discovered what life is like for an MP. We also were given the opportunity to express our pupil voice by asking a range of probing questions and taking part in debating both global and local issues. These ranged from deforestation in Brazil, the cost of living crisis, the war in the Ukraine to local issues such as the number of litter bins in South Shields and the number of homeless people living in South Shields.

These are some of the questions we asked:

What is the council doing to support the homeless living in South Shields?

What would Emma do if she was Prime Minister?

What can be done to help families during the cost of living crisis?

What does Emma think about the deforestation of the Amazonian rainforest?

Does Emma agree that there should be more litter bins in South Tyneside?

What is the council doing to stop climate change?

Does Emma think it is right to provide weapons to be used in the Ukraine war?

Year 6

We had a discussion in class on whether Stanley should have escaped in order to find Zero. We then took part in a conscience alley to see who would be the most convincing side. 

2022-2023

Nursery

We brought the egg in the classroom. We carefully opened the egg to find a baby Dragon inside. We passed the dragon around the children. We asked the children what would they do if a dragon came to their house? 

If a dragon came to my house :-

Isla -Rose said " I would feed him bugs and flowers."

Carter said "I would feed him biscuits and go to the play area."

Jayden said "I would show him how to play with his toys."

Isaac said "I would show him his brother."

Elijah said "I would take him to the beach."

Travis said "I feed him the flowers."

Jasper's Beanstalk

Reception

We have been learning facts about tigers linked to our story ‘The Tiger who came to Tea’. 

We have been learning to ask and respond to questions and interact with our friends about our family tree. 

We talked about our favourite vegetables and each had a turn at choosing our personal favourite to make a class pictogram. We are building our confidence to contribute our ideas in a whole class discussion time. We are also learning to ask questions such as; Which vegetable is the most popular? and answer questions such as 7 children like carrots.

Year 1

The children have thoroughly enjoyed reading Wild by Emily Hughes this half term. They were able to retell the story confidently. 

Year 2

The Great Fire of London

We are currently exploring The Great Fire of London as a stimulus for our writing this half term.  We have explored example texts to unpick the features and use of language and even watched news reporters to see how they use their expressive voices to convey meaning.  

We took the role of historical reporters and practised using our voices to show importance and make an impact with listeners.

Year 3

The Great Kapok Tree

We took part in a debate after reading the start of the book 'The Great Kapok Tree'  where we discussed the big question 'Should the man cut the tree down?'  We all had different ideas and opinions and we were able to give reasons for our thoughts.  After we had the debate we formed an conscience alley to try and persuade others who culd not make up their mind to join us.

Year 4

We wrote our own persuasive adverts for the shoes we designed, and performed them using the green screen. 

Year 5

The Explorer.

Inspired by a chapter entitled "Fire", in which the children create fire in order to survive, we used personification to compose and perform our own poems , bringing the fire to life!

The Night Bus Hero.

Inspired by the issues of homelessness addressed in the novel, "The Night Bus Hero", we used drama to recreate Prime Ministers Question Time. As representatives of the government and the opposition we had a heated parliamentary debate challenging the government to address the issue of homelessness.

Votes for Women!

As part of our Women in History topic we wrote and performed powerful and emotive speeches as Suffragettes campaigning for the right to vote.

Year 6

The Boy at the Back of the Class

The children discussed their thoughts on the emergency plan and whether it was the right choice to approach the Queen’s cards.

2021-2022

Nursery

Reception

Role Play and Imaginative Play

In Reception, our role play area provides us with lots of opportunities to engage in imaginative play, including imaginative language. We can use our own experiences to enhance our use of language and then build greater vocabulary through new role play situations. 

What’s in the box?

Today a special parcel arrived at our classroom. We shared our ideas about what might be inside, and what we would like to find inside!

We love using the puppets in our imaginative play! We used the puppets to retell our favourite stories to our friends!

Year One

While reading our story Wild by Emily Hughes we came across a big question - should the little girl be allowed to live in the woods? She has lived in the woods all her life and grown up with the animals as her family but should she learn to live as a human in the town where there are adults to look after her? 

We used our debating skills to convince our classmates to come to the yes, no and maybe table - which would you choose?

Year Two

News Report on the Great Fire of London:

We loved learning about the Great Fire of London and even took the role as journalists in our own broadcast following the deadly events as they unfolded in 1666.  

We wrote and edited our own news reports and then performed in our very impressive Sea View News Room.  Take a look...

Year Three

Developing our English skills

Within our quality text (Robin Hood) this term, parts of the story are told through speech bubbles. We learned how to change the speech bubbles into direct speech using the correct punctuation.  To do this, we practiced the skill first by working with our partners to say what we thought the characters in a set of photographs were saying to each other and then converting that speech into written direct speech.

Year Four

Year Five

Last Transmission Home.

After commanding a failed mission to Mars we found ourselves stranded on the Red Planet. With vital supplies running low we are now left with no other choice but to send a last transmission home in the hope that someone will rescue us. After studying examples of speeches, we drafted and wrote our own. We then used a green screen to perform our last transmissions home.

Year Six

We took part in Hot Seating, where one person took on the Role of Macbeth answering questions on the witches’ prophecies as well as his thoughts and feelings based on this.