At Wellesbourne, we believe that communication and language are the cornerstones of learning, connection and personal growth. The ability to speak, listen and respond effectively empowers pupils to think deeply, express ideas confidently and engage meaningfully with the world around them. As highlighted in Ofsted’s Schools Inspection Toolkit (2024), the curriculum must “develop pupils’ capacity to use spoken language purposefully and precisely across all subjects,” ensuring that every child can articulate, reason, question and influence with confidence and respect.
Our Communication and Language Progression provides a clear and ambitious framework for developing oracy from Nursery through Year 6. It draws on insights from Strong Foundations in the First Years of School (2024), recognising that language is the bedrock of learning and that children who can think and talk well are better equipped to read, write, and reason effectively. In line with The Writing Framework (DfE, 2024), we understand that strong talk precedes strong writing: children first learn to compose orally before they can communicate effectively in writing.
EYFS
Our Early Years staff are Elklan-trained, having received specialist training from speech and language professionals. This expertise enables us to enhance communication and language provision across our setting. As a result, we are working towards achieving the Communication Friendly Setting (CFS) award, which will ensure that our entire Early Years environment actively supports the communication and language development of all pupils. We follow the Shrek approach to developing language and take any opportunity we can to develop our pupils language and communication skills.
Year 1 – 6
Pupils are encouraged to express their ideas confidently, listen respectfully to others and take part in meaningful discussions.
Teachers use a blended approach to oracy teaching. In some lessons, children take part in Philosophy for Children (P4C) discussions, which help them to think deeply, ask questions and explore different viewpoints.
Our main approach to oracy is guided by Voice 21. This ensures that children develop skills across the four strands of oracy: physical, linguistic, cognitive, and social and emotional. These skills support learning across the curriculum and help prepare children for life beyond the classroom.
To see our oracy progression documents for each year group please click on the buttons below