Oracy & Critical Thinking

Year 7 have started a new Oracy & Critical Thinking course that develops students’ skills in these two crucial, interconnected areas.

The goal of the course is to produce students who can engage with ideas through reflective reasoning and who are able to articulate their own arguments in a clearer, more logical way. Each Year 7 class spends one dedicated period per week exploring how rigorous arguments can be constructed and practising these steps through lively debates and discussions on a range of issues. In addition to good arguments, pupils will also explore logical fallacies, from ad hominem to the slippery slope, learning how to recognise when they are being deployed – a very useful tool when navigating a complex online environment of many conflicting voices.

So far, Year 7 have risen to the challenge with aplomb, learning how to prove that a claim is true and important, working out whether or not an argument is intuitive, and engaging enthusiastically in ‘line debates’. Using these tools, they have explored issues ranging from young people getting the vote to feminists’ relationship with the beauty industry. Along the way, they are developing an equally important skill: the ability to listen carefully to others in order to engage with their arguments in a productive, thoughtful manner. Using oracy as the method – an approach also taken in the Junior School’s timetabled oracy lessons for Year 5 – helps to enliven the vital process of creating flexible and critical thinkers.