The Oracy Spark Structure

Oracy Spark makes meaningful classroom talk simple to build into the school day. A familiar weekly routine gives children regular opportunities to share ideas, listen to others and grow in confidence — without adding to teachers' planning.

A familiar rhythm each week

Mindset Monday
Reflect, persevere and approach challenges positively.

Talk Tuesday
Share opinions, practise conversation and listen to different ideas.

Wellbeing Wednesday
Explore feelings, kindness and self-awareness.

Think Thursday
Ask questions, give reasons and think more deeply.

Feel-Good Friday
Celebrate, connect and end the week positively.

The five themes stay familiar, but the questions and activities are adapted for different ages. Younger children might respond through pictures, play and short conversations, while older pupils can explain their reasoning, explore different perspectives and build on one another's ideas.

Developing purposeful talk: Talk Tactics and Talk Roles

Every week, children are introduced to a Talk Tactic and a Talk Role. Together, they provide a clear focus for developing speaking, listening and discussion skills through everyday classroom conversations.

💬 Talk Tactics — How we develop ideas

Talk Tactics are the discussion skills children practise when sharing and exploring ideas.

There are six Talk Tactics:

Instigate — Get a conversation started.
Build — Add to or develop someone else's idea.
Challenge — Respectfully question or disagree.
Clarify — Make an idea easier to understand.
Probe — Ask questions that deepen thinking.
Summarise — Bring the main ideas together.

👂 Talk Roles — How we contribute

Talk Roles encourage children to think about their responsibility within a conversation, helping everyone participate thoughtfully and respectfully.

There are six Talk Roles:

Starter — Gets the discussion going and encourages participation.
Builder — Develops ideas by adding examples or new thinking.
Challenger — Respectfully offers a different viewpoint.
Listener — Pays attention, shows understanding and responds thoughtfully.
Questioner — Asks questions to help everyone think more deeply.
Summariser — Recaps the key points and what the group has learned.

One weekly focus. Five daily opportunities to practise.

The tactics and roles follow a repeating six-week cycle, giving children opportunities to revisit and strengthen their communication skills over time.

Each weekly presentation includes simple explanations of the Talk Tactic and Talk Role, alongside sentence starters that help pupils put the week's discussion skill into practice.

These aren't additional lessons or activities teachers need to plan. The focuses are built into the daily Sparks, making purposeful talk part of the classroom routine.

A shared approach across the school

Oracy Spark offers age-appropriate activities from EYFS through to Year 6. Questions, sentence starters, Talk Tactics and Talk Roles are adapted to support children at different stages of development.

In EYFS, children can participate through pictures, gestures, simple words and supported conversations. As pupils progress through primary school, they develop greater confidence in explaining, questioning, listening and responding to others.

This gives schools a consistent approach to oracy, with opportunities for children to develop their skills year after year.

Activities are designed to:

invite every child into the conversation
develop vocabulary and speaking confidence
strengthen listening and respectful responses
encourage children to explain and build on ideas
develop questioning and reasoning skills
create meaningful opportunities to talk in just a few minutes

Thoughtful content throughout the year

Daily Sparks draw on curriculum connections, seasonal events, wellbeing, transitions and wider personal development.

While the five weekday themes provide familiarity, the changing questions, Talk Tactics and Talk Roles ensure children encounter new ideas and develop their discussion skills throughout the year.

Resources that fit your classroom

Use a Spark as a morning starter, a circle-time conversation, a wellbeing check-in, a small-group activity or a springboard into wider learning.

Ready-to-use weekly PowerPoints bring everything together: daily questions, differentiated sentence starters, follow-up questions and the week's Talk Tactic and Talk Role.

The Sparkive lets members revisit and download previous weekly presentations, while the Spark Generator helps teachers create discussion prompts linked to topics their classes are exploring.

Keep it to a short conversation or take the discussion further when time allows.

No extra lessons. No complicated preparation. Just a few purposeful minutes of talk every day.