Developing Oracy
Everything you need for developing fantastic oracy in your school.
Face-to-face courses. Bespoke support delivered in school. Online courses. Downloadable resources.
A framework for oracy skills progression
The six pillars are:
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Physical
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Liguistic
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Cognitive
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Social & emotional
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Toolkit
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Ownership
Based on a wide range of research, this evidence informed structure equips pupils for life-long success in oracy : empowering pupils through the power of communication.
Unlock High-Impact Oracy Teaching with a Proven Framework
The oracy framework isn’t just a teaching tool—it’s powerful professional development in itself. It helps teachers think more deeply and strategically about oracy, making it easier to plan with purpose and teach with confidence.
The clear structure and visual icons make the framework intuitive and accessible—not just for teachers, but for pupils too. It's a resource you can use with your class, not just behind the scenes.
Each pillar is supported by a detailed breakdown of key skills. This depth ensures that teachers can target oracy development precisely—tailoring it to their pupils’ needs.
Whether you're planning across a year, designing a unit of work, or shaping a single lesson, the framework helps you:
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Identify pupils’ next steps in oracy
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Align activities with the most relevant skills
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Confidently assess progress and impact
Let the Six Pillars guide your assessment—pinpoint where pupils are now, and unlock their next stage of progress.
When planning oracy activities, match them to specific skills—and turn every speaking opportunity into a powerful moment for pupil growth.
This resource can be used in many ways: For planning, for assessing, for teachers to consider their professional development needs against, to plot progression across key stages, to celebrate strengths and work out how to address gaps.
Oracy assessment
Editable assessment tools support pupil self-assessment, group reflection, and teacher tracking—making it easier to plan next steps and encouraging pupils to take ownership of their oracy development.
A raft of prepared sheets to choose from speeds up the process, while blank proformas allow teachers to design their own assessments.
Coaching wheels
Teachers make a judgement about each segment (0-10) and shade the corresponding segment to produce a profile.
Different questions can be used with the coaching wheel depending what you wanted to explore e.g.
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How confident and skilled do you feel in developing pupil skills in each of the six pillars?
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How would you rate pupils' skills currently?
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When considering the statements, which aspects are a typical part of your current practice?
If you were to make improvements to one segment, which would have the biggest impact on pupils?
Sets of questions can aid professional dialogue:
🧠 Cognition. (Example questions linked to current practices)
You've rated cognition at 4. What takes it to 4, rather than 0?
Can you describe what 10 would look like?
If you were to move cognition from 4 to 5, what would you need to do?
What difference would it make to pupils if this aspect of your oracy practice improved?
The following questions can help a teacher consider how improvements can be made related to the cognition pillar:
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How do you help pupils prepare for structured discussions? To what extent could you improve how prepared pupils are or how structured the discussions are?
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What thinking routines or scaffolds do you use to help pupils organise their ideas? If you were to increase this aspect of practice, what would you need to do?
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Are pupils encouraged to build on others’ ideas or challenge respectfully? What resources, modelling, examples and rewards might help to increase this?
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Do pupils connect their speaking to wider learning goals or enquiry questions? What might you change about when an activity is introduced and how it is introduced?
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There are 5 subsections of cognition in oracy, which area would be most useful to explore: organisation, engagement of the mind, noticing, content, or recording and sharing?
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Which types of thinking could be better supported in oracy activities, e.g. summarising, comparing, analysis, recall, evaluating.
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Looking at the criteria for cognition, what aspects of CPD would be most helpful. For example, would CPD on teaching summarising skills be useful, or would you find it beneficial to co-plan an activity which utilised diagrams and graphs in a speaking activity?
In addition, older pupils can also use the wheels to self-assess and set targets for their own development.
Oracy teaching framework : 4 quadrants
At the beating heart of the system is the 4 quadrant model by which teachers plan, conduct and evaluate oracy activities.
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Foundations
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Conditions
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Execution
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Reflection
For oracy leaders, this tool is a game-changer - it supports focused, strategic conversations that strengthen classroom practice and ensure oracy is embedded with intent and impact.
The model, key questions and a comprehensive guide support the use of the 4 quadrat model.
Leaders and teachers can fear that time spent on oracy activities leads to improvements in speaking and listening skills, and often engagement, but can make it harder to achieve academic outcomes than other more direct teaching methods. By employing the 4 quadrant framework, teachers can ensure that oracy activities are well planned to deliver on outcomes, are excellently set up to create the best conditions for learning, and practice is continually refined and enhanced for impact.
The 4 quadrants to aid teacher practice alongside pinpointing pupils skills development through the 6 pillars provides schools with rock solid foundations for oracy excellence.
Want even more?
In addition, leaders and teachers can access:
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7 strategies for teachers to ask better questions as part of whole class teaching;
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Advice on improve learning through questioning as part of whole class teaching;
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Toolkits and resources to aid teachers in planning questions;
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Think pieces to aid teacher knowledge of research linked to the development of pupils' listening skills.
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Support for leaders on the strategic leaders of oracy.
Bespoke support
Use the contact form below to get in touch about bespoke support: leadership zoom calls, training days and twilights, on-going support for a school improvement goal.
ONLINE COURSE & DOWNLOADS
Use the contact form below to receive details of low cost online training options and resource download packages.
TESTIMONIALS
“Brilliant ideas easily put into practice.” “Really practical resources. Lots of activities to take back and use immediately and longer term actions.” “Vicky’s whole course was outstanding.”
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