At Balestra Education, we believe that when children are physically engaged, their talk becomes more purposeful. Our primary history and science workshops are meticulously designed to align with the UK Government's revised National Curriculum's Oracy focus and the Voice 21 UK Oracy Framework, ensuring that every "eureka" moment is matched by a "let me tell you why" moment.

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1. The Physical Strand: Voice and Body Language

Developing the confidence to speak and the physical presence to be heard.

• Role-Play & Historical Drama: In our WW2, Roman, Stone Age, and Victorian workshops, pupils step into the shoes of people from the past. By taking part in interactive timelines and dramatic role-play, children experiment with vocal projection, tone, and physical gesture to convey emotion and authority.

• Team Dynamics: Whether working as a team in our Human Body workshop physical challenges, or a military unit in the Roman workshop, students learn how their physical presence and non-verbal communication affect the success of the group.
   

2. The Linguistic Strand: Vocabulary and Structure

Expanding "word wealth" and using technical language with precision.

• Embedded Tier 3 Vocabulary: We move beyond basic descriptions to help pupils master subject-specific terms in a natural, high-stakes context.

  • HISTORY: Roman workshop: Pupils learn latin names for a Roman Soldier's kit, such as Gallea (helmet) and Paenula (cloak), as well as army commands such as Testudo (turtle formation), Intente (attention) and Legion (a group of 5,000 soldiers)

  • HISTORY: WW2 workshop: Pupils are introduced to the terms axis / allies, D-Day, Rationing and many more

  • HISTORY: Victorian inventions: students learn about the derivation of the term Camera (Italian for "Dark room"), the phonograph, the electric telegraph and ket terms for steam engineering 

  • SCIENCE: Y6 Evolution: Students articulate terms like natural selection, adaptation, inheritance, and evolution.

  • SCIENCE: Forces: Pupils correctly identify and describe friction, gravity, air resistance, and magnetism.

  • SCIENCE: KS1 Materials: Vocabularies expand to include properties like absorbency, flexibility, and transparency.

• Contextual Mastery: By using these terms while physically handling objects, the language moves from a passive "word wall" into their active, spoken repertoire.
   

3. The Cognitive Strand: Reasoning and Content

Organizing thoughts and using talk to deepen understanding.

• Collaborative Inquiry: In many of our workshops pupils work in groups to sort and classify specimens or artefacts. This requires them to justify their choices, build on peers' observations, and reach a consensus through logical reasoning.

• Structured Questioning: We build frequent questioning opportunities into every session. We prompt pupils to speculate, hypothesize, and explain the why behind their findings, helping them structure their thoughts into coherent speech.
   

4. The Social & Emotional Strand: Collaboration and Listening

Learning the art of conversation and working with others.

• The Pair-Work Challenge: Many of our workshops involve group work and paired work.  For example, during our Electricity workshop, pupils work in pairs to manipulate circuit boards. To succeed, they must practice active listening, turn-taking, and collaborative problem-solving. In addition, every one of our history workshops also involve collabaritive working with peers 

• Team Engineering and problem solving: Our wide range of science and history challenges require pupils to delegate roles and negotiate ideas, building the emotional confidence to ensure every voice in the team is heard.

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From "Orality" to "Literacy": The Long-Term Impact

The impact of a Balestra Education Ltd workshop doesn't end when the equipment is packed away. Teachers consistently report that our "hands-on" delivery creates a lasting legacy in the classroom:

• Improved Written Work: By providing a rich, sensory experience, we give pupils the "conceptual hooks" they need to write with authority. When children have already used Tier 3 terms in active conversation, those words transition naturally into their written compositions.

• High-Fidelity Recall: Because our workshops engage multiple senses, the information is encoded deeply in the long-term memory. Pupils are often able to recall specific details and technical explanations many weeks or months after the session has ended.
   

What Teachers Are Saying about the impact of our workshops on pupil oracy

 

"Simply amazing! The children have not stopped talking about our fantastic science workshop and their writing that came from it has been excellent!"  

— Rachael and Dan, team teachers, Manchester

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"Great delivery and fantastic resources! The circuit boards alone and the communication the pupils used to solve the challenges together were worth the booking - they made such a difference to the pupils' understanding of the topic." 

— James, Y6 teacher, Liverpool

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"All the pupils have talked about today was the workshop they attended yesterday. It was just such a brilliant way of ensuring enthusiastic, interested pupils who want to research further. I will be asking you to return to my year 6 next year."

— S Bromley, Deputy Head/Year 6 teacher, Worsley

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Balestra Education Ltd: Empowering children to speak like scientists and think like historians!