The Voice 21 offices are unusually quiet, not because we have all whizzed off on our summer holidays already (we’ll be here throughout the summer so get in touch anytime!) but because we are all a little hoarse from a packed year of talking with over 500 schools and 2000 teachers!

It has been such a busy and transformational year for Voice 21, it is hard to pick out highlights but we’ve had a go….

Highlights of the year

Going nationwide!

This time last year, Voice 21 was three staff and two part-time teachers all based in East London. We now have a team of ten (with some big recruitment news coming so watch this space!), spread across the country and are working with schools from Penzance to Dundee.

Getting to know and then seeing the impact of our first cohort of Oracy Leaders

From the buzz in the room at the initial residential at Hughes Hall in Cambridge, it was clear that the we had selected a great group of passionate teachers for our inaugural Oracy Leaders Programme. Over the course of the year, we learnt so much from them as they generously shared their skills, expertise and insights to develop their own take on oracy and how to lead it. They have lapped up every opportunity and challenge we have thrown at them and their end of course presentations, at the ESU’s Dartmouth House, were a fantastic demonstration of the impact that committed individuals can make in their classrooms and beyond.

We received double the applications for this year’s programme and look forward to meeting the 18/19 Oracy Leaders in September!

“The level of support, expertise and shared passion from the leadership team has been incredible resulting in increased passion, knowledge and enthusiasm from me! The impact across our school in only a year has been incredible.” OLP Participant 2017-8

Voice Areas

In 2017, Voice 21 started working with schools in Bradford on the creation of Voice Bradford, an area based approach to embedding oracy in schools. Following its success, we have developed Voice Areas across the country including Voice Camden, Pendle, Ipswich, Leicester, North of Tyne and Plymouth. Each Voice area includes a minimum of 12 schools working together with us to develop hubs of local expertise, identify and upskill Oracy Leaders across the area and implement oracy action plans based on the area’s specific needs and ambitions. Not one Voice Area programme is the same: Voice Pendle involves a range of settings from a nursery through to an adult education college working together to improve outcomes from cradle to career, whilst the combined group of primaries and secondary schools in Voice Ipswich are focusing on how oracy can support transition.

The Great Oracy Exhibition

On a sunny day in March, School 21 flung open its doors to welcome over 350 guests and children from schools across the country to take part in the Great Oracy Exhibition. Starting with multiple mass talking assemblies, it was clear this was not any ordinary conference! The day was celebration of students’ voices with performance poets from Manchester moving the audience to tears whilst along the hallway sixth form politics students dissected Theresa May’s Conservatism in a Harkness debate. Interwoven with these performances were workshops with teachers generously sharing their ideas and practice on oracy teaching and expert speakers addressing the crowds on topics from rhetoric to accents and social mobility. Next year’s Great Oracy Exhibition promises to be even greater so get the date, Thursday 28 March, in your diary now!

Taking oracy education to Westminster

There is always a lot of talking in Westminster but rarely is it the voices of eight year olds that are heard. In a meeting instigated and chaired by Emma Hardy MP, a packed room of MPs listened intently as children and young people from School 21, the English Speaking Union, the English Speaking Board and Reclaim powerfully made the case for oracy. Following the meeting, MPs and members of House of Lords decided to form an All Party Parliamentary Group on Oracy, with the first inquiry launching when you return to school in September. Huge thanks to Emma Hardy MP for her energetic and passionate advocacy for oracy. To follow the work of the APPG email [email protected]

The publication of ‘Transform Teaching and Learning through Talk: The Oracy Imperative

As well as leading all of our teacher programmes and school partnerships, Voice 21’s Directors of Teaching and Learning, Amy Gaunt and Alice Stott have found time to write a book! Published later this year in both the UK and US ‘Transform Teaching and Learning through Talk: The Oracy Imperative’ is rich with ideas, advice and strategies and will be your go-to guide to get talking in class.

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Thanks to our supporters Big Change and all the teachers and schools we have had the pleasure of working with this year, have a fantastic summer and we look forward to talking again in September!

From The Voice 21 Team