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The central resource of this pack — 24 cut-out talk cards designed to provoke genuine conversation, not one-word answers. Each card poses an open question that requires the speaker to articulate, justify, or imagine: “If you could invent a new flavour of ice cream, what would it be and why?” or “What would you take to a desert island and why?”

The cards are deliberately graded across four kinds: Imagining (encourages hypothesising), Justifying (encourages reasoning), Describing (encourages well-structured narratives), and Comparing (encourages evaluation). The teacher pack maps each card type to its specific NC spoken language requirement.

Designed to be printed once and used hundreds of times. Take one card on the school run, at the dinner table, at circle time, or in a quiet moment. Each conversation can last 30 seconds or 30 minutes — depends on the child.

“Show and tell” is the most common KS1 presentation task and one of the few moments a child has to give a structured, sustained spoken explanation. Most children find it terrifying — not because they can’t do it, but because they haven’t planned it.

This two-page planner walks them through the three parts of a good show-and-tell: what it is, why it matters to me, one interesting fact about it. There’s a practice tracker on page 2 so the child can tick “I said it to a teddy / I said it to a grown-up / I said it in the mirror” before the real day.

Directly targets NC spoken language requirements 5 (“give well-structured descriptions”) and 8 (“speak audibly and fluently”).

A 6-slide lesson on the social side of spoken language — the bits that aren’t about WHAT you say, but HOW. Covers listening attentively, taking turns, asking open questions, building on what others say, and the polite way to disagree.

These are the meta-skills that make group discussions actually work in a KS1 classroom. Designed to be shared with an adult and discussed slide by slide rather than rushed through.

Directly targets NC spoken language requirement 3: “use relevant strategies to build their vocabulary”. Each card pairs a richer word with its plain meaning and a real sentence the child could say. Words are chosen to give immediate “upgrade” potential — swapping “big” for “enormous”, “nice” for “delightful”, “sad” for “miserable”.

Designed as a weekly rotation: pick one or two new words on a Monday, encourage the child to use them in conversation through the week, swap for new ones the following Monday. The teacher pack suggests a similar pattern for classroom use.

NC spoken language requirement 9 is explicit: pupils should participate in “discussions, presentations, performances, role play, improvisations and debates”. This activity book provides structured scenarios for each.

Five pages, each a different speaking situation: a shopkeeper at a market stall, a vet examining a poorly pet, a TV presenter introducing the weather, a news reporter on the scene, and a poem read aloud with expression. Each scenario gives an opening line, three example dialogue prompts, and space for the child to add their own.

Designed for two-person play (child + adult or sibling) — the talking IS the activity. Nothing to mark.

A short, practical guide for parents and carers. The Department for Education identifies spoken language as the foundation of everything else in primary English — but it’s also the strand parents have the most influence over, because most of it happens at home, not at school.

This guide explains why everyday conversation matters more than people realise, and gives four small, do-anywhere techniques: the “tell me more” rule, the “swap a word” game, the screen-off dinner, and the goldmine of a 10-minute story-time chat.

Spoken language is the hardest strand to teach systematically and the hardest to assess. This teacher pack maps every resource to its NC requirement, recommends classroom routines that genuinely embed the skills (rather than tick-box “speaking lessons”), and gives practical assessment guidance.

Particularly useful: a section on managing dominant talkers and reluctant talkers, the two perennial problems of KS1 oracy.