KIA ORA!
WELCOME TO ORACY AOTEAROA AND SPREAD THE WORD
What is Oracy?The ability to understand and use spoken language.
At Oracy Aotearoa, we believe it is vitally important to nurture strong oracy skills in our tamariki. |
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Our goals
We want kids talking confidently
Many tamariki in Aotearoa New Zealand are suffering from a lack of oracy skills.
This lack of oracy leads to negative learning and lifestyle consequences for too many kiwis.
In fact, the current focus on literacy basics (reading and writing) makes things worse.
We're committed to changing this by:
Many tamariki in Aotearoa New Zealand are suffering from a lack of oracy skills.
This lack of oracy leads to negative learning and lifestyle consequences for too many kiwis.
In fact, the current focus on literacy basics (reading and writing) makes things worse.
We're committed to changing this by:
- Raising awareness of the importance of oracy skills and the vital links to well-being, education, health, and social connection.
- Improving oracy skills of our tamariki especially in the early years to make sure they have a solid foundation for learning and thriving.
- Influencing national education and public health policy to reflect the importance of oracy skills.
- Ensuring appropriate and timely resourcing of low oracy tamariki.
- Supporting those working with tamariki - parents, educators, and community organisations; in their understanding of why oracy is vital and simple ways to promote it.
Starting your oracy journey
Everyday help for our tamariki
Anyone (mums, dads, friends and whānau) can help improve oracy skills for our tamariki. |
Teachers and professionals
There are proven structured methods for improving oracy outcomes. |
What we stand for?
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Oracy in the news |
Oracy Aotearoa founder, Karena Shannon, recently outlined the issue of Oracy in an Opinion Piece for the NZ Listener.
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About Oracy
Oracy Aotearoa has been established to raise awareness of the importance of oracy.
We want everyone - whānau, friends, educators, NGOs and government to understand that oracy is vital to the well-being of individuals and the wider community. I’ve been working with low oracy children since the 1980's. Having worked in all levels of education over several decades, I've seen the long term impacts of low oracy and how it's become an intergenerational issue in Aotearoa. |
Helping kids between the ages of 3 and 6 talk confidently about their lives and face fewer challenges when learning to read and write is one of my passions. I believe the current focus on falling literacy rates overlooks the connection between low oracy and low literacy.
Changing the country's understanding of oracy at the policy and funding level is important. That's what we are lobbying for through Oracy Aotearoa. But political change takes time. The kids you'll see in the videos on this website, and the many other bright and curious kids like them, need help right now. |
That’s why we want to Spread the Word: to help ordinary people learn simple, informal, everyday ways to help kids improve their oracy.
You'll find helpful resources and advice on this website, and we also offer support for these approaches in our community presentations.
If you are an educator, you'll be pleased to know that there are formal ways to help children develop oracy skills. At least one of these is a home-grown intervention currently in use in some NZ schools, that's highly effective and inexpensive to deliver.
Click here to read more.
Please get in touch if you have a comment, ideas to share, want to help Spread the Word, or would just like more information.
You'll find helpful resources and advice on this website, and we also offer support for these approaches in our community presentations.
If you are an educator, you'll be pleased to know that there are formal ways to help children develop oracy skills. At least one of these is a home-grown intervention currently in use in some NZ schools, that's highly effective and inexpensive to deliver.
Click here to read more.
Please get in touch if you have a comment, ideas to share, want to help Spread the Word, or would just like more information.