Speaking & Listening

Curriculum

Our Intent

Speaking and listening are vital skills, fundamental to all aspects of life. At St John’s, promoting and supporting the development of clear and meaningful communication is a crucial part of our curriculum.

In a safe and encouraging environment, we want children to develop into confident communicators who illuminate the goodness in each other by listening, speaking with kindness and empathy and explaining with clarity and confidence. It is our aim that pupils recognise that speaking and listening can lie at the heart of conveying character, and that through speaking and listening effectively, misunderstandings cab be addressed and relationships enhanced.

We want pupils to be able to express their opinions and articulate their feelings in a variety of contexts but also to develop the skills to listen and respond appropriately in a range of situations. We strive to ensure that pupils can work within groups to present their ideas with confidence and value the views of others. We aim to provide opportunities for pupils to speak audible and confidently before an audience eg leading class and whole-school worship and performing in school plays.

Implementation

At St John’s, approaches to teaching and learning encourage pupils to voice their ideas in small group and class discussions, as we recognise that sharing and explaining concepts with peers clarifies thinking and thereby enhances learning. Staff model the use of higher level vocabulary within their speech and expanding children’s vocabulary is a key focus from EYFS. Subject specific vocabulary is embedded across the curriculum, through teacher modelling, in context. Contextual learning helps children to understand new words and supports them in including them in their work.

Guided Reading sessions encourage pupils to explore unfamiliar vocabulary and expand their knowledge of words. Staff model correct grammar in speech and encourage children to reflect this in their use of spoken and written language. Pupils are given the chance to orally rehearse ideas for writing regularly.

Each class leads worship once a term for parents and individual pupils lead class and key stage worship regularly. Pupils in upper key stage two have the opportunity to lead prayers and worship during church services and each key phase performs a Christmas production.

Every opportunity is taken to expose children to public speaking eg hustings for school councillors, pitching for chosen charities, presenting home learning etc. We also encourage dialogue with the wider community through visits to the local care home and involvement in community projects.