Oracy in Primary Schools CPD

A complete primary oracy CPD pack helping teachers strengthen purposeful classroom talk, pupil participation and curriculum learning across EYFS to KS2.

This ready-to-deliver professional development pack supports primary teachers and school leaders to develop oracy in a practical, purposeful and manageable way.

The training focuses on helping pupils think, explain, listen and communicate more effectively through well-structured classroom talk. It moves beyond simply giving pupils more opportunities to speak and instead explores how teachers can design talk with a clear learning purpose.

The session includes practical strategies for:

• giving classroom talk a clear purpose
• teaching the behaviours of effective speaking and listening
• increasing participation beyond the quickest or most confident pupils
• giving pupils time to think and rehearse before responding
• helping pupils build on, clarify and challenge ideas
• supporting curriculum vocabulary and increasingly precise language
• using sentence stems without permanently scripting pupil responses
• gradually reducing talk scaffolds as pupils become more confident
• embedding purposeful talk across the primary curriculum
• avoiding common problems such as unstructured discussion, the same pupils dominating and talk becoming disconnected from learning

The CPD includes examples and activities suitable for EYFS, KS1 and KS2, with applications across reading, writing, maths, science, history, geography and wider curriculum learning.

The complete pack includes:

editable 26-slide PowerPoint presentation
detailed Full Presenter Guide
Presenter Quick Guide
Staff Workbook
Oracy Quick Reference
Talk or Learning? starter activity
Purposeful Talk Planner
Turn a Question into a Discussion activity
Build On, Clarify, Challenge resource
Who Gets to Speak? reflection tool
Sentence Stem: Support or Script? activity
Talk Across the Curriculum Strategy Bank
Oracy Classroom Audit
7-Day Talk Plan
Evaluation Form
Certificate of Completion

The main session is designed for approximately 90 minutes, with a shorter 60-minute delivery pathway also provided.

This makes the resource suitable for:

whole-school CPD
INSET
staff meetings
phase meetings
teaching and learning development
ECT development
leadership-led professional learning

The materials are editable so schools can adapt them to their own context and priorities.

The approach is practical, evidence-informed and designed specifically for primary classrooms.

Suitable for EYFS, KS1 and KS2.

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Keywords: oracy, primary oracy, oracy CPD, primary CPD, classroom talk, purposeful talk, speaking and listening, pupil discussion, classroom discussion, teacher CPD, staff training, INSET, EYFS, KS1, KS2