The Great Oracy Exhibition was packed full of captivating student performances, some of which began hours before the doors were flung open to School 21 in Stratford. At 7am on a packed Virgin train, somewhere between Manchester and London, students from Plymouth Grove Primary School in Manchester took over the tannoy – reciting poetry. Amid a sea of suit-clad commuters, two young students recited their own words to the entire train. Lap top lids were lowered, head phones removed and phone conversations hushed as the voices of these primary school children filled the carriages of the train. The Year 5 students from Plymouth Grove, accompanied by their proud teacher, Sarah Thompson, were practising for their performance at the exhibition.

In a day which included immersive theatre, performance poetry, debate and protest songs, a recurring theme emerged: students’ desire to be heard as they grapple with the world around them. Plymouth Grove’s Year 5s and School 21’s Year 7s spoke of love as an antidote to violence, with poems written in response to the Manchester Arena bombing and songs about knife crime in east London.

The first of School 21’s Yr 7’s protest songs included the refrain “please don’t use that knife”, a powerful plea from children who are using their voices for consciousness raising. Perhaps even more impressive than the performance itself, was these students’ ability afterwards to explain the meaning behind and purpose of their song to their attentive audience. A prevailing message emerged, encapsulated so eloquently by Plymouth Grove’s Yr. 5s: “We stand tall/ we rise up to be counted/ we…make…change.”

Throughout the morning, a large crowd gathered to listen to speeches prepared by Croydon’s Orchard Park High and Beal High School, Ilford. Topics ranged from banning the use of plastic to mental health. Students commanded their space, weaving together extended talks with the kind of rhetorical expertise that many adults would envy. As the exhibition drew to a close, I was reminded of George Szirtes’ poem, Song, which celebrates the power of collective effort:

“But give certain people a place to stand a lever, a fulcrum, a weight, however small the hand, the object however great, it is possible to prove that even Earth may be made to move.”

All of the schools involved in the Great Oracy Exhibition 2018 should be congratulated for equipping their students with the skills and confidence that an oracy-rich curriculum builds and for encouraging them to stand proud upon platforms from which they can be heard.