Speaking and Listening

At Holy Trinity, we believe that having the skill of being able to communicate with others is essential to allow our pupils to be able to achieve their full potential. Our school is privileged to have many children and families who speak other languages at home. We believe in giving our children real life experiences that provide opportunities for talk, these include trips and visitors to school. Speaking and listening underpins everything that we do at Holy Trinity.

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.

Through all subjects, language is modelled clearly to ensure correct pronunciation of words. Sentence starters are taught and time is given to orally rehearse sentences. Staff expect precision in spoken language responses and we make frequent use of structured activities to develop vocabulary and grammar.

Speaking and listening structured activities are built into all subject areas. The use of sentence starters, regular oral rehearsal and echo reading are all used to develop speaking and listening skills. We provide different opportunities for our children to present to others as appropriate. This may be small groups, whole class, assemblies or at outside events. Focused interventions target specific skills where needed in order to close gaps in learning.  Children are referred to the LA Speech & language service for particular language needs if required.

We believe it is our role to provide firm and solid foundations, that can be built upon as children progress throughout school and in future life. We want children to have the confidence to express themselves, assert themselves, acknowledge the views of others and debate different issues. We want children to ask questions, to adapt tone and vocabulary effectively dependent on audience and situation.

We feel that these are important skills that will stay with our children into the future and ensure they have the best life chances possible.

For our long term planning, in EYFS, we follow development matters. Language and communication is a prime area of learning that permeates all what we do in the foundation stage. In KS1 and KS2 we aim to achieve the National Curriculum 2014 spoken language objectives.

Planning at all levels reflects a heavy focus on speaking and listening, e.g. role play, oral rehearsal, echo reading, drama activities etc.

Speaking and listening may not be explicitly planned as a stand-alone subject but it is evident in all subject areas as it is such a naturally strong element of all teaching sessions.