After an invigorating start to our day at the Great Oracy Exhibition, I joined a group to explore oracy for teamwork. It was a mixed group of primary and secondary, teachers and leaders, adults and students. Our facilitators, Lottie and Jessie from School 21, opened the session by getting us to work straight away on a talking point – is there room for softer skills in the curriculum? Immediately the room was full of talk and looking around I could see serious faces and plenty of passion. I watch one group interact – all contribute, there is some disagreement and plenty of questions asked to develop ideas. Lottie opened the floor for feedback.

A short pause.

Then Daniel offered this group’s feedback.

“The thing for us was, how do we define soft skills? What is really important to help us develop and do well? We need them as much as we need literacy and numeracy.”

You see, Daniel is a student from Fulbridge Academy, here today to share his debating skills in a performance later. His feedback opens the door to exactly why we are here today and why we at Voice 21 are committed to helping every child to find their voice. His clear, articulate and confident contribution exemplifies what we want to hear from students. I had watched the group interact to build this feedback and as Lottie and Jessie talk about the foundations that enable this, it is clear that the students from Fulbridge recognise the process and their learning.

Jessie takes us through examples of strategies for purposefully and intentionally developing teamwork skills, based on oracy activities. She shares the skills tracker linked to the School 21 attributes which enable staff and students to understand how they develop, giving focus to areas such as compromise and challenging politely. It is clear that the explicit teaching of these ideas and the behaviours that underpin them are the key to successful and effective team work.

We then see examples of what these teams achieved in their project based learning. Lottie and Jessie are very honest about the challenges it presents and take us through their learning. Examples, such as activities to explore what to do if there is conflict and how to compromise, were powerful in reinforcing that this doesn’t happen effectively without detailed planning.

The last part of the session was indicative of the ethos here at School 21. That there is always reflection. That students take time to reflect on how they did and how they could do better, to develop their self awareness and to take ownership of their actions. The implicit metacognition that is fundamental to the School 21 approach.

As I left the session, I reflected myself. What if as adults, as staff and as leaders, we took time to reflect on our behaviour, engagement and thinking after a meeting? What if instead of rejecting the explicit teaching of team working skills as a management fad, we meaningfully engaged with it? How much more effective will these young people be in the workplace given their explicitly taught, developed and understood team working skills? Now, that is exciting.