At St. Cuthbert Mayne, we develop children’s confidence and clarity in spoken language. We focus on developing children's oracy skills across a broad range domains: physical, linguistic, cognitive, social and emotional aspects of spoken language. We do this in many ways: 

• High quality interactions between adults and children: sharing attention, responding to children's ideas, extending their vocabulary, leading to holding a conversation.  
• Baseline speech and language assessments for all children from Reception.  
• Extensive oral rehearsal of sentences, known as "Hold a sentence".  
• Encouraging conversations with talk partners. This could be through questioning, sparking interactions and giving prompts.
• Modelling and encouraging listening skills. 
• Modelling speaking loudly and clearly, using accurate vocabulary and intonation.  
• Boosting comprehension through questioning.
• Providing regular opportunities for public speaking.  

Developing these skills enables children to clarify their thinking and organise their ideas for writing. Children have opportunities in Class Celebration of the Word, group discussions, class assemblies and drama.