Stage 1 – Voice 21

In the first stage of your membership as a Voice 21 Oracy School you will build the foundations of oracy teaching and learning to meet the Oracy Teacher Benchmarks.

Stage 1 contains three key elements: our Oracy Pedagogy and Practice Course, consultancy support and online learning modules. These will equip teachers in your school with the expertise, tools and resources to provide a high-quality oracy education in every classroom.

Explore these three elements in brief and further detail below.

Course: Oracy Pedagogy & Practice

Develop expert oracy teachers who can champion oracy across your school through sharing their own expert practice and supporting colleagues.

Three development days, as well as online learning and guided teaching episodes.
Spaces for two teachers – the Oracy Champions for your school.

Time commitment:

Overall, approximately 4.5 days per Oracy Champion.

Consultancy

Throughout the year you will work with a dedicated Voice 21 consultant who will provide one-to-one, ongoing support, tools and guidance, starting with benchmarking current practice to write your school’s implementation plan.

Frequent one-to-one meetings, alongside information sharing and progress reviews conducted remotely.
Relationship led by your Voice 21 School Lead

Time commitment:

Overall, approximately 3 days’ time commitment from your appointed Voice 21 Oracy School Lead.

Online learning

Our self-led, online CPD modules are for colleagues across your school. You’ll be able to identify different modules for different members of your team to engage in, or modules for all your teachers to complete.

Our range of self-led online modules vary in length and can be completed at a time which works for your team.
The Voice 21 Exchange is open to anyone in your school who wants to develop their oracy expertise.

Time commitment:

Overall, approximately six hours of online learning available for all staff.

Course: Oracy Pedagogy & Practice

This course is designed to develop expert oracy teachers who can champion oracy across your school through sharing their own expert practice and supporting colleagues.

Oracy Champions will explore how to establish a culture of classroom talk, develop academically productive talk in specific subject areas and how to teach oracy explicitly.

Your school will have confident Oracy Champions who:

Establish high expectations for oracy and support all students to meet them
Teach oracy explicitly and evaluate student progress
Harness oracy to strengthen and deepen subject learning
Support colleagues across the school to develop their oracy practice

Your students will benefit from:

An improved ability to communicate confidently and articulate their ideas and understanding through talking in class
A classroom culture where every voice is valued and listened to

Voice 21 Oracy Consultancy

Your Voice 21 Oracy Consultant will work with you to define your school’s vision, support key strategic decisions and design your implementation plan to fit your school’s context. To keep track of your progress and journey as a Voice 21 Oracy School, we work with your dedicated Voice 21 Oracy School Lead to produce your Oracy Portfolio, shown here.

Through this, by the end of this stage your school will have:

Articulated and shared its vision for oracy
Developed and enacted a strategic plan for oracy in every classroom
Supported teacher practice through in-house CPD and peer feedback
Explored the impact of oracy at the start and end of Stage 1.

Your students will benefit from:

A wider school community that understands the importance of oracy and how they can embed it

Time commitment: our consultancy support includes frequent one-to-one meetings, alongside information sharing and progress reviews conducted remotely. Your school’s progress and plans will be defined and shared in bespoke documents throughout the year, such as your Oracy Benchmarks Report.

Overall, approximately 3 days’ time commitment from your appointed Voice 21 Oracy School Lead.

Meet our Consultants

All of our Voice 21 Oracy Consultants are trained teachers who share first hand experience of the impact that oracy teaching and learning can have on their classroom teaching and school culture.

Meet our team here.

Online learning on the Voice 21 Exchange

The modules you have access to at Stage 1 will deepen areas of practice within your school, including our Impact Project module which uses practitioner-led research to design and implement an approach with a target group of students. You will also have access to a module designed to support new staff induction to oracy alongside modules focused on specific oracy contexts such as debate.

Through this, by the end of this stage your school will have:

Practitioners who are using research-based approaches to reflect on the impact of their oracy practice on students
Explored new contexts for oracy such as debate and speechmaking
Equipped all staff, including new members of your team, with the core oracy knowledge they need
Joined and be contributing to specialist networks to support the development of practice

Your students will benefit from:

Hear your students express themselves in new contexts for oracy such as speech-making

Time commitment: our range of self-led online modules vary in length and can be completed at a time which works for your team. The Voice 21 Exchange is open to anyone in your school who wants to develop their oracy expertise.

Overall, approximately six hours of online learning available for all staff.

Register now for September 2021!

Prices

Each stage costs £2500 (primary schools) or £3000 (secondary schools) for the year. If you sign up for all three stages now, your total cost over three years will be reduced to £7000 (primary schools) or £8500 (secondary schools).

Logistics

On registering, please select the most convenient course location to attend across England and Wales, or you can choose to attend the course online only.

Registration

We are full to capacity for schools starting their membership as a Voice 21 Oracy School this school year. We are now taking registrations for schools wishing to start as Voice 21 Oracy Schools in September 2021. You can register one school or multiple schools via the links below.

Register now for September 2021

You can register now to join Stage 1 as a Voice 21 Oracy School in September 2021.

Develop oracy across your group of schools

If you are part of a Multi-Academy Trust, Local Authority or Teaching School Alliance we can work with you across your group of schools. Click below to find out more.