Selattyn C of E Primary School

As a loving community, our vision is to nurture each individual in our care, giving them the skills, resilience and hope to succeed and flourish, both academically and spiritually, in God’s ever changing world.

Speaking and Listening Statement

Speaking, listening and building relationships is a key part of life.  Pupils come into school with different experiences and personalities and our school seeks to meet children at their starting points to ensure they make progress and move on as confident, competent individuals. 

Pupils are taught to develop their competence in spoken language and listening to enhance the effectiveness with which they are able to communicate across a range of contexts and to a range of audiences. They have opportunities to work in groups of different sizes – in pairs, small groups, large groups and as a whole class. Pupils are taught how to take turns and when and how to participate constructively in conversations and debates.

Attention is also paid to increasing pupils’ vocabulary, ranging from describing their immediate world and feelings to developing a broader, deeper and richer vocabulary to discuss abstract concepts and a wider range of topics, and to enhancing their knowledge about language as a whole.

Respect for individual pupils and opinions is a high priority in school.  All work around speaking and listening is undertaken within the culture of the schools values.

National Curriculum Statutory Requirements

Pupils should be taught to:

• listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers

• ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge

• use relevant strategies to build their vocabulary

• articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions

• give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings

• maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments

• use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas

• speak audibly and fluently with an increasing command of Standard English

• participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates

• gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener(s)

• consider and evaluate different viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others select and use appropriate registers for effective communication.

The Curriculum Leader for Speaking and Listening is:

Ross Shepherd