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What is Madani Oracy?

Our vision is underpinned by 3 principles; educational excellence; safety and well-being and being prepared for adult life. We believe that the use of Oracy supports all three of those principles and therefore we have embedded the use of Oracy both implicitly and explicitly and both inside and outside of the classroom.

As a school we are firm believers of the benefits of Oracy and our staff and students can talk passionately about the reasons why Oracy is important. We share this practice and these views with our colleagues in other schools. We also would like to use this as an opportunity to invite schools in to see how we use Oracy in a range of areas and to support other schools in their journey to do the same.

At an unprecedented time of sadness, challenge and adversity for many nationally, coupled with the polarised division of society on so many issues; successful conflict resolution and meaningful debate requires oracy. The current crisis reaffirms our commitment to protect and support young people and families, who are amongst the most vulnerable in the country and at increased risk of inequality and disadvantage. Oracy represents an opportunity to have a real impact on the life chances and educational experiences of our students. We believe providing students the platform to explore issues through talk in a safe environment, allows them to process the issues they are concerned about and to ask the questions they need, to understand the world around them.

We have 6 Oracy objectives on our school Oracy Action Plan:

• Pupils have many varied opportunities to talk and discuss in lessons across the curriculum and assemblies.
• Develop opportunities for every child to practice their oracy outside of the classroom.
• Develop a shared language for oracy across the schools across all levels and including all stakeholders.
• Teachers to model Oracy and to scaffold lessons to provide support for oracy in line with the Oracy framework.
• Departments will appraise Oracy in Key Stage 3 in the form of an Oracy Assessment.
• Teachers will put Oracy opportunities in place to deepen learning.

The targets above are incorporated into our wider LitOracy implementation plan, as in line with the Education Endownment Foundation’s research into successful Literacy interventions, we see Oracy as a key aspect of Literacy which enables students to not only explore their learning through structured talk, but also to enable verbal drafting of work before students begin to write.

Madani Oracy Day

Every year in October, we have a ‘Madani Oracy Day’ where we welcome stakeholders and other schools in to see Madani Oracy in action. On this day all school staff also share and develop good practise through observation, coaching and whole-school CPD. Please let us know if you are interested in visiting us on this day.

Statement from our Headteacher:

The Trust vision, curriculum and school improvement planning has a strong emphasis and commitment to Oracy and literacy for the entire learning community. This is clearly outlined in the strategic development plan.

We believe passionately as a Trust in the power of the spoken word and in the development of Oracy and dialogic skills as key components to ensure every child achieves their potential and personal excellence regardless of their background or circumstances. Our excellent Oracy lead has outlined above the many endeavours across the curriculum, enrichment opportunities and events we have undertaken as schools and in collaboration with other agencies. It is this incessant approach on the focus and command of high standards of literacy and Oracy for our students that has delivered our exceptionally high outcomes and importantly a broader range of outcomes in the preparation of students for all aspects of their lives, not just exams.

Our vision as a Hub school is to build on these strong foundations of outcomes, expertise and drive to work collaboratively, to reciprocally share expertise with more colleagues and schools across the city and beyond to benefit a greater number of students and communities.

Riyaz Laher, Executive Headteacher, Madani Schools