Walton Priory Middle School’s James Croxton-Cayzer shares his top tips for ensuring practical science lessons get students thinking as well as doing.

"Sir, are we doing a practical today?"

If you teach science, you probably hear this question at least once a lesson. Pupils love practical work, but how often do we stop and ask ourselves: are they really learning from it? Are practicals just a fun way to prove a theory, or can they be something deeper – something that engages students intellectually as well as physically?

I was recently asked to speak at a NACE member meetup about how we at Walton Priory Middle School ensure that practicals are not just hands-on, but minds-on as well. Here’s how we approach it.

1. Don’t just do a practical: know why

Before anything else, ask yourself: What do I want my pupils to learn? Every practical should have a clear learning goal, whether that’s substantive knowledge (e.g. learning about the planets) or disciplinary knowledge (e.g. “How are we going to find out the RPM of a propeller?”).

I used to assume that if pupils were engaged, they were learning. But engagement isn’t the same as deep thinking. By clearly defining why we are doing a practical and keeping cognitive overload in check, pupils can focus on the right aspects of the lesson.

2. Give them a puzzle to solve

Rather than handing over all the information at once, I break lessons into two parts:

• Knowledge I am going to give them
• Knowledge I want them to discover for themselves

Children love discovery. Instead of telling them everything, create opportunities for them to piece it together themselves. If you’re like I was, you might worry about withholding information in case they never figure it out. But I’ve found that knowledge earned is usually better retained and understood than knowledge simply given.

For example, when teaching voltage in Year 6, I might tell them that increasing voltage will increase the speed of a motor (since there’s little mystery there). But I won’t tell them how to measure the speed of the motor. Instead, I challenge them: “What methods could we use to measure the speed of a fan?” This immediately shifts their thinking from passive reception to active problem-solving.

3. Hook them with a story

While linking science to real-world applications is common practice, storytelling as a teaching tool is often overlooked. A compelling story can make abstract scientific concepts feel personal and meaningful.

For example, in our Year 5 Solar System topic, I frame the lessons as a journey where alien explorers (who conveniently share my students' names – weird that…) must learn all they can about our planet and surroundings. In our Properties of Materials topic, I create audiologs for each lesson of a ship’s journey – except there’s a saboteur on board! Each lesson, the rogue does something that requires students to investigate different properties to solve the problem. Will they ever find out who did it? Who knows! But they are certainly engaged and thinking about the science.

4. Use partial information to encourage scientific thinking

One of the most powerful ways to keep students engaged is to avoid giving them everything upfront. Instead, drip-feed key information and let them work out the missing pieces.

For example, instead of just listing the planets, I provide partial information – snippets of data they must organise themselves to determine planetary order. This encourages effortful retrieval and intellectual engagement, rather than passive memorisation.

Returning to our Year 6 voltage lesson, I ask: “How can we prove that?” Some students count propeller rotations manually. Others try using a strobe light or a slow-motion camera. One of my class recently attached a lollipop stick to the fan and tried to count the clicks on a piece of paper – a great idea, but the clicks were too fast! So I turned it back on them: “How do we solve this?”

• Record the sound? Great!
• Slow it down? Super!
• Put the sound file in Audacity and count the visualised sound wave for two seconds, then multiply by thirty? Amazing!

The key is that they think like scientists – testing, adapting, and refining their approach.

5. Keep everyone engaged

Minds-on practicals require careful structuring. Not all students will approach a task in the same way, so scaffolding and adaptive teaching are key:

• Structured worksheets help those who struggle with open-ended tasks.
• Flexible questioning allows you to stretch more able learners without overwhelming others.
• Pre-discussion before practicals ensures students understand the why as well as the how.

All students, including those with additional needs, should feel part of the investigation. Clear step-by-step instructions, visual aids, and breaking down the task into smaller chunks make a big difference.

Even with the best planning, some students will struggle. Here’s what I do:

• Encourage peer teaching. Can a more confident pupil explain the method?
• Break it down even further. Can we isolate just one variable to focus on?
• Provide alternative ways to engage. If a pupil is overwhelmed, can they observe and record data instead? Once they feel comfortable, they may ask to take on a more active role.
• Reframe the challenge. Instead of “You’re wrong,” or “That won’t work,” ask, “What made you think that?” This builds resilience and scientific thinking.

Key takeaways

• Make sure every practical has a clear learning goal.
• Give pupils a reason to investigate, not just instructions to follow.
• Use partial information to make them think like scientists.
• Ensure adaptive teaching so all pupils can access the learning.
• If pupils struggle, break it down further or reframe the challenge.

Final thought: hands-on, minds-on science

Science should be a subject of curiosity, not compliance. When we shift practicals from tick-box activities to genuine investigations, students become scientists – not just science learners.

By ensuring every practical is intellectually engaging as well as physically interactive, we help pupils develop not just knowledge, but scientific thinking. And that’s the ultimate goal: to create independent, curious learners who don’t just ask, “Are we doing a practical?”, but “Can we investigate this further?”

Related reading and resources:

• NACE subject-specific resources: primary science
• NACE subject-specific resources: secondary science

1. Tell a different story

2. Use everyday objects

3. Keep it complex

What next?

Additional reading and resources

• Barnes, O. (2024), Britain’s forgotten colony? Why Hong Kong deserves a place in the story of empire (published in the Historical Association’s Teaching History journal)
• The Hong Kong History Podcast 
• Hopkins, J. (2024), Maximising the power of storytelling in the history classroom (Historical Association login required for full access)
• Chartered College of Teaching: Why decolonise and diversify the curriculum? 

Embedding oracy skills across the curriculum

Oracy scaffolds to develop classroom talk

• Voice 21 classroom listening ladders: high-ability students can take on leadership roles in group discussions, facilitating peer learning and mentoring others, which not only reinforces their understanding but enhances their social and emotional skills.  
• Student age-related oracy frameworks from Voice 21: to encourage high-ability students to articulate their learning processes, reflect on their contributions, and assess their growth.   
• Sentence stems and talking roles: high-ability students thrive in environments that challenge their thinking. Oracy practices with sentence stems support argumentation, encourage deep analysis and critical reasoning. 
• Voice 21 good discussion guidelines: exposure to diverse perspectives can challenge high-ability students’ thinking and expand intellectual horizons. 
• Proof of listening guidelines from Voice 21: listening helps high-ability students build better relationships with their peers and teachers. When students feel heard, they are more likely to engage and participate in the learning process, creating a positive and inclusive classroom atmosphere. 
• Student talk tactics and sentence stems from Voice 21 for every discussion and debate: high-ability students thrive in environments that challenge their thinking, and these tactics stimulate intellectual curiosity and critical analysis. These improved whole-class discussions and have greatly impacted group work as the children are more focused, listen carefully to others, build on their ideas, embed learning and address misconceptions. Overall, it has helped students to become confident, eloquent individuals and created a more effective learning environment.

Public speaking practice

Dialogic learning communities 

A stronger voice within and beyond the classroom

• Voice 21
• Oracy Cambridge
• We need to talk, 2024 – Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England
• Oracy: the why and the how – Chartered College
• Oracy Skills Framework – Oracy Cambridge and Voice 21 
• Oracy Benchmarks – Voice 21

NACE Associate Dr Jonathan Doherty outlines the focus of this year’s NACE R&D Hub on “oracy for high achievement” – exploring the impetus for this, challenges for schools, and approaches being trialled.

This year one of the NACE Research & Development Hubs is examining the theme of ‘oracy for high achievement’. The Hub is exploring the importance of rich and extended talk and cognitive discourse in the context of shared classroom practice. School leaders and teachers participating in the Hub are seeking to improve the value and effectiveness of speaking and listening. They are developing a body of knowledge about provision and pedagogy for more able learners, sharing ideas and practice and contributing to wider research evidence on oracy through their classroom-based enquiries.

Why focus on oracy?

Oracy is one of the most used and most important skills in schools. To be able to speak eloquently and with confidence, to articulate thinking and express an opinion are all essential for success both at school and beyond. Communication is a vital skill for the 21st century from the early years, through formal education, to employment. It embraces skills for relationship building, resolving conflict, thinking and learning, and social interaction. Oral language is the medium through which children communicate formally and informally in classroom contexts and the cornerstone of thinking and learning. The NACE publication Making Space for Able Learners found that “central to most classroom practice is the quality of communication and the use of talk and language to develop thinking, knowledge and understanding” (NACE, 2020, p.38). 

Oracy is very much at the heart of classroom practice: modern classroom environments resound to the sound of students talking: as a whole class, in group discussions and in partner conversations. Teachers explaining, demonstrating, instructing and coaching all involve the skills of oracy. Planned purposeful classroom talk supports learning in and across all subject areas, encouraging students to: 

• Analyse and solve problems
• Receive, act and build upon answers 
• Think critically
• Speculate and imagine
• Explore and evaluate ideas

Dialogic teaching’ is highly influential in oracy-rich classrooms (Alexander, 2004). It uses the power of classroom talk to challenge and stretch students. Through dialogue, teachers can gauge students’ perspectives, engage with their ideas and help them overcome misunderstandings. Exploratory talk is a powerful context for classroom talk, providing students with opportunities to share opinions and engage with peers (Mercer & Dawes, 2008). It is not just conversational talk, but talk for learning. Given the importance and prevalence of classroom talk, it would be easy to assume that oracy receives high status in the curriculum, but its promotion is not without obstacles to overcome. 

Challenges for schools in developing oracy skills

Covid-19 has impacted upon students’ oracy. A report from the children’s communication charity I CAN estimated that more than 1.5 million UK young people risk being left behind in their language development as a result of lost learning in the Covid-19 period (read more here). The Charity reported that the majority of teachers were worried about young people being able to catch up with their speaking and understanding as a result of the pandemic (I CAN, 2021). 

With origins going back to the 1960s, the term oracy was introduced as a response to the high priority placed on literacy in the curriculum of the time. Rien ne change, with the current emphasis remaining exactly so. Literacy skills, i.e. reading and writing, continue to dominate the curriculum. Oracy extends vocabulary and directly helps with learning to read.  The educationalist James Nimmo Britton famously said that “good literacy floats on a sea of talk” and recognised that oracy is the foundation for literacy. 

Teachers do place value on oracy. In a 2016 survey by Millard and Menzies of 900 teachers across the sector, over 50% said they model the sorts of spoken language they expect of their students, they do set expectations high, and they initiate pair or group activities in many lessons. They also highlighted the social and emotional benefits of oracy and suggested it has untapped potential to support pupils’ employability – but reported that provision is often patchy and that CPD was sparse or even non-existent. 

Another challenge is that oracy is mentioned infrequently in inspection reports. An analysis of reports of over 3,000 schools on the Ofsted database, undertaken by the Centre for Education and Youth in 2021, found that when taken in the context of all school inspections taking place each year, oracy featured in only 8% of reports.

The issue of how oracy is assessed is a further challenge. Assessment profoundly influences student learning. Changes to assessment requirements now provide schools with new freedoms to ensure their assessment systems support pupils to achieve challenging outcomes. Despite useful frameworks to assess oracy such as the toolkit from the organisation Voice 21, there is no accepted system for the assessment of oracy.

What are NACE R&D Hub participants doing to develop oracy in their schools?

The challenges outlined above make the work of participants in the Hub of real importance. With a focus on ‘oracy for high achievement’, the Hub is supporting teachers and leaders to delve deeper into oracy practices in their classrooms. The Hub supports small-scale projects through which they can evidence the impact of change and evaluate their practice. Activities are trialled over a short period of time so that their true impact can be observed in school and even replicated in other schools. 

The participants are now engaged in a variety of enquiry-based projects in their classrooms and schools. These include:

• Use of the Harkness Discussion method to enable more able students to exhibit greater depth of understanding, complexity of response and analytical skills within cognitively challenging learning;
• Explicit teaching of oracy skills to improve independent discussion in science and history lessons;
• Introduction of hot-seating to improve students’ ability to ask valuable questions;  
• Choice in oral tasks to improve the quality of students’ analytical skills;
• Oracy structures in collaborative learning to challenge more able students’ deeper learning and analysis;
• Better reasoning using oracy skills in small group discussion activities; 
• Interventions in drama to improve the quality of classroom discussion.

Share your experience

We are seeking NACE member schools to share their experiences of effective oracy practices, including new initiatives and well-established practices. You may feel that some of the examples above are similar to practices in your own school, or you may have well-developed models of oracy teaching and learning that would be of interest to others. To share your experience, simply contact us, considering the following questions:

• How can we implement effective oracy strategies without dramatically increasing teacher workload?
• How can we best develop oracy for the most able in mixed ability classrooms?
• What approaches are most effective in promoting oracy in group work so that it is productive and benefits all learners? 
• How can we implicitly teach pupils to justify and expand their ideas and make clear opportunities to develop their understanding through talk and deepen their understanding?
• How do we evidence challenge for oracy within lessons?

Teachers should develop students’ spoken language, reading, writing and vocabulary as integral aspects of the teaching of every subject. Every teacher is a teacher of oracy. The report of the All-Party Parliamentary Group inquiry into oracy in schools concluded that there was an indisputable case for oracy as an integral aspect of education. This adds to a growing and now considerable body of evidence to celebrate the place that oracy has in our schools and in our society. Oracy is in a unique place to support the learning and development of more able pupils in schools and the time to give oracy its due is now. 

References

• Alexander, R. J. (2004) Towards dialogic teaching: Rethinking classroom talk. York, UK: Dialogos.
• Britton, J. (1970) Language and learning. London: Allen Lane. [2nd ed., 1992, Portsmouth NH:  Boynton/Cook, Heinemann].
• I CAN (2021) Speaking Up for the Covid Generation. London: I CAN Charity.
• Lowe, H. & McCarthy, A. (2020) Making Space for Able Learners. Didcot, Oxford: NACE.
• Mercer, N. &. Dawes., L. (2008) The Value of Exploratory Talk. In Exploring Talk in School, edited by N. Mercer and S. Hodgkinson, pp. 55–71. London: Sage.
• Millard, W. & Menzies, L. (2016) The State of Speaking in Our Schools. London: Voice 21/LKMco.
• Millard, W., Menzies, L. & Stewart, G. (2021) Oracy after the pandemic: what Ofsted, teachers and young people think about oracy. Centre for Education & Youth/University of Oxford. 
  

Read more: 

• Speaking up: developing oracy for high achievement
• 7 steps to establishing a whole-school oracy culture
• 6 ideas to develop oracy in your school
• Four ways Covid restrictions have affected learning and development

NACE Associate Amanda Hubball, Deputy Head and More Able Lead at Challenge Award-accredited Alfreton Nursery School, shares five key approaches to embed metacognition in the early years. 

At Alfreton Nursery School metacognition has been systematically embedded across the whole curriculum for the last three years. Through the use of an approach constructed by Roger Sutcliffe (DialogueWorks) called Thinking Moves, we’ve successfully implemented an innovative approach to learning.

When we talk about the progression of mathematical understanding we have a shared language. We all understand what it means to engage in addition and subtraction. Phonics, science . . . all areas of learning have a common linguistic foundation.

However, when it comes to the skills of thinking and learning, there is no common language and the concepts are shrouded in misconception. Do children learn visually, kinaesthetically . . . ? Are there different levels to learning? Based on the belief that we are all thinking and learning all of the time, Thinking Moves has been implemented at Alfreton Nursery School. Thinking Moves provides the language to explain the process of thinking and has thus provided a common framework on which to master learning.  

1. Develop and model a shared vocabulary

A shared vocabulary, used by all staff and children, has provided the adults with a tool to explain teaching, and the children with a tool to aid learning.  Crucially, the commonality in language means that learning is transparent. For example, when children explain what comes next in a story, they are using the A in the A-Z: thinking Ahead. During the story recall children are using B: thinking Back. The A-Z of Thinking Moves supports children to consciously choose and communicate the thinking strategies they intend to use, are using, or have used to achieve success.  

Teaching staff build on the more commonly used Thinking Moves words, whilst subtly introducing less familiar terms. The use of synonyms within conversation, to accompany the language of Thinking Moves, supports both adults and children to use the words in context.     

“I’m going to think ahead, cos I need to choose the bricks I need to build my rocket.”

2. Embed metacognitive concepts in the learning environment

The learning environment critically supports the children’s use of metacognition. With each word comes a symbol. These symbols are used to visually illustrate Thinking Moves. Children use these symbols to explain what type of thinking they are engaged in and what they need to do next. 
The integration of the symbols into the classroom environment has ensured that there is conscious intent to implement metacognition within all areas of the curriculum. Teachers use the symbols as prompts. Children use the symbols to help them articulate their thinking and as an aid to knowing what strategies will help them further. 

Through immersing children in the visual world of metacognition, all children – regardless of age and stage of development – are supported in their learning.

3. Break it down into manageable chunks

The A-Z includes some words which slide easily into conversation. Other words are less easily integrated into everyday speech. In order to ensure that a variation of language is incorporated throughout the curriculum, specific areas of the curriculum have dedicated Thinking Moves words. For example, Expressive Art and Design have embraced the metacognitive moves of Vary, Zoom and Picture. This ‘step by step’ strategy gives teaching staff the confidence to learn and use the A-Z in small chunks.  

Over time, as confidence grows, the use of metacognitive language becomes a natural part of daily discourse. Whether in the staffroom over lunch, planning the timetable or sharing a jigsaw, metacognition has become a part of daily life.

4. Use to support targeted teaching across the curriculum

Metacognition is embedded throughout continuous provision and is accessed by all children through personalised interactions. Enhancements are offered across the curriculum and metacognition forms a vehicle on which targeted teaching is delivered. For example, by combining thinking moves together, we have created thinking grooves. By using certain moves together, the flow of thinking is explicit. 

Within our maths enhancements we use the maths QUEST approach. A session begins with a Question, e.g. “How many will we have if we add one more to this group?” Children Use their mathematical understanding and Explain what they will need to do to solve the problem. The answer is Sized, “Are there more or less now?”, and then this is Tested to establish the consistency of the answer. Maths QUESTs now underpin our mathematical enhancements, allowing children to consciously use maths and metacognition simultaneously.  

5. Embed within progression planning

When looking at the curriculum and skill progression across the school, it has been helpful to consider which Thinking Moves explicitly support advancement. For children to progress in their acquisition of new concepts, they need to know clearly how to access their learning. Within our planning and assessment systems, areas of metacognitive focus have been identified.  

For example, within literacy we have raised our focus on the Thinking Move Infer. For children to gather information from a story is a key skill for future progression. Within science we emphasise the need to Test and within music we support children to Respond. Progression planning now has a clear focus on cognitive challenge, as well as subject knowledge.

Embedding metacognition in the early years supports children to master their own cognition and gives them a voice for life.  

Further reading:

• How to model metacognitive skills in your classroom
• Metacognition for higher-attaining learners: “the debrief”
• How can a focus on metacognition lead to more effective assessment?
  

Plus:

• Explore NACE’s early years resources