Talking Tales
From September 2024 Polka Theatre’s Creative Learning team will be delivering Talking Tales; a new 2-year drama project aimed to support Key Stage 1 teachers to strengthen pupils’ oracy skills, particularly for those disproportionately affected by the pandemic. This programme is supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation through the Teacher Development Fund.
The Teacher Development Fund aims to enable teachers and school leaders to develop their skills, knowledge and experience in order to embed learning through the arts in the primary curriculum.
Talking Tales will focus on developing practice for teachers and SLT in six primary schools who will use drama to support oracy and provide the scaffolding needed for literacy skills. With a combination of Teacher CPD sessions, practitioner led drama workshops for pupils, teacher resource packs and mentoring and support sessions, we aim to empower lead teachers to deliver supported training to the wider KS1 team to ensure all staff can integrate opportunities for developing Oracy into all lessons.
Drama is the perfect lens through which to develop the majority of skills encompassed by ‘Oracy’ and Polka’s methodology gamifies storytelling and drama techniques to develop the skills encompassed by Oracy Cambridge and Voice 21’s Oracy Framework. Good oracy requires the ability to adapt speech across styles and situations. Therefore, the Talking Tales programme will focus on a key form of speech, thus providing the opportunity to develop physical, linguistic, social-emotional, and cognitive skills in a range of contexts. Polka is particularly interested in how to apply an anti-racist approach to the model to further reduce barriers for learners.
“In the Speak for Change Report 2020, over half of teachers surveyed said their schools do not have a consistent approach to oracy development among students. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the development of oracy skills in young people. We’re delighted to be a part of round seven of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Teacher Development Fund and we hope that our Talking Tales programme will offer teachers a greater understanding of oracy and give them the skills to use drama as a way to support oracy and integrate this learning into all areas of the curriculum.”
Polly Simmonds, Head of Creative Learning at Polka
“There is a significant majority of children coming into school with low levels of language development. This has an impact on the children’s readiness for the National Curriculum in year 1. Drama gives children confidence to have a voice. Developing oracy is therefore a constant focus. It is not something that is ever ‘finished’.”
Michael Bradley – Head Teacher at Merton Abbey Primary School
“Learning through the arts can engage and inspire young people, support key educational outcomes and develop skills that prepare them for the next phase of their lives. For many young people, particularly those experiencing inequity and disadvantage, the only opportunity to gain access to arts education is at school. That’s why we are delighted to announce the seven partnerships that have received a grant from our Teacher Development Fund Round 7. We were impressed by the quality of applications and look forward to seeing how the projects equip teachers with the skills and confidence needed to provide quality and impactful education and learning through the arts.”
Moira Sinclair, Chief Executive at Paul Hamlyn Foundation
“Many of our students come from other cultures or are economically deprived (or both) drama brings a text to life for a lot of children, especially those who are struggling to come out of their shell, it gives them a way in; being able to communicate a story and follow a narrative structure is an essential prerequisite to many literacy skills and builds a love of learning’”
Debbie Fossey, Strategic Lead (Curriculum/Phase) at Kings Oak Primary School
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