Oracy-Voice 21 Centre of Excellence

St John and St Francis are a Voice 21 Oracy Centre of Excellence 2025

We are so proud to have been recognised as a Voice 21 Oracy Centre of Excellence for our work in developing students' oracy (speaking and listening) skills.

Being accredited as a Voice 21 Centre of Excellence certifies and celebrates that we are leading the way in providing a high-quality oracy education for students and acting as a beacon of good practice for over 1000 schools nationwide.

In Voice 21 Oracy Schools, our children learn the oracy skills they need to succeed in school and in life.

Our Press Release is available here, and the report highlighted;

Our Voice 21 School Leads are: Kim Shanahan (Year 6 Teacher/Year 5 & 6 Phase Lead and English Lead) and Lee Butt (EYFS Teacher & EYFS/KS1 Phase Lead and English Lead)

Vision:

Our vision for oracy is that every child at St John and St Francis will leave our school being confident, articulate and respectful speakers and listeners who can verbalise their feelings, engage in purposeful dialogue and know their views matter in today’s society.

Why oracy?

Oracy in action:

September 2025

Woodpecker class have spent the first few weeks of the new year practising their Oracy skills. They have thought about what words and phrases to use depending on who their audience is, how to speak confidently in front of a group of people and then shared their own set of instructions with another class to practise these skills. We are so impressed with how the children have settled back into school life after the summer holidays and are looking forward to them continuing to use their Oracy skills throughout their learning as the year progresses.

February 2025

EYFS were given the opportunity to video themselves at home retelling a Traditional tale, linked to our learning. Please have a look at our amazing Billy Goat Gruff story!:

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January 2025

Please see below for some photos of Year 6's Oracy Open Class, where parents/carers were invited to come into school to see what the children have been learning, and the feedback given: