On Thursday, 18 April, The Kingsley School proudly welcomed Year 5 students from three Leamington Spa-based schools for an oracy workshop day.
Students from The Kingsley School – along with students from Clapham Terrace, Shrubland Street Community Primary School and Kingsway Community Primary School, collaborated in mixed groups during sessions that were hosted by mentors from the English-Speaking Union (ESU).
Over the course of the day, the students took part in three workshop sessions, each of which involved a variety of fun games and activities that aimed to develop oracy-related skills such as debating, public speaking and self-expression, whilst encouraging the students to find common interests and foster a sense of friendship.
Activities included ‘Draw Like Picasso’, which involved students pairing up in order to describe and blindly draw increasingly complex pictures; ‘Beat the Wave’, which involved students using body language to show a variety of emotions; and ‘Captain’s Choice’, whereby students had to explain their reasoning for why their job – whether that be a cook, medic or researcher – was the most important for keeping on board the Captain’s ship.
The skills that the students developed throughout the day were underpinned by the PEEL framework – Point, Explanation, Evidence and Link – so that the opinions that they were putting forward followed a persuasive and informative structure.
Students learned terms such as ‘proposition’, ‘opposition’ and ‘rebuttal’, as each pupil clearly became more familiar and assured with expressing themselves within the context of friendly debate as the day went on.
The day finalised with all four groups returning to the main hall for a quick-fire debate as the students put the skills they had learned into practice.
All of the Year 5 students had a fantastic time. They enjoyed being welcomed into the Kingsley community for the day, experiencing life in our school and meeting other local students of the same age.
Importantly, everyone developed a set of invaluable skills, grew in confidence as the day went on and made some new friends!
We thank the mentors from the ESU for running the workshops, all of The Kingsley School’s staff who assisted on the day, and a special thanks to all of our students who took part – they were fantastic ambassadors for the school and demonstrated the Kingsley culture of kindness and inclusivity with which we are all familiar.