Case Study: Grove Street Primary School

Students feel safe to use their voice

Implementing oracy education at Grove Street has enhanced the school’s pastoral care, improving students’ emotional regulation, mental health and overall wellbeing. By creating an environment where students feel safe and able to use their voices, teachers and leaders have built a ‘home away from home’ for their students. This has had a profound impact on the school; students have grown in confidence, are more enthusiastic about their learning and are more engaged in lessons.

Using talk to solve playground disputes

As you walk through Grove Street, you notice groups of students in classes across the school talking confidently about their learning in small groups and to the whole class. Engagement is high; when teachers ask a question a flurry of hands shoot up enthusiastically. Teachers report that students are now more willing to participate in class, keen for their ideas to be heard. Behaviour for learning has also improved now that students are more engaged in their learning. Outside the classroom, leaders explain that there are less playground disputes because students are able to better articulate their feelings.

Students are now able to vocalise how they feel

In reception, Charlie has made lots of changes to the curriculum to help students learn both to and through talk and create a safe, secure learning environment where children feel comfortable speaking up. Children in Charlie’s class are now able to describe events in greater detail, speak to unfamiliar adults and for extended periods about things that they are interested in. Thanks to this culture where students' voices are valued, Charlie’s students now have the skills and confidence to speak up when they need to.