In school, oracy is a powerful tool for learning; by teaching students to become more effective speakers and listeners we empower them to better understand themselves, each other and the world around them. It is also a route to social mobility, empowering all students, not just some, to find their voice to succeed in school and life. 
How can you teach oracy and achieve a high-quality oracy education for your students?

Through a high quality oracy education students learn through talk and to talk. This is when they develop and deepen their subject knowledge and understanding through talk in the classroom, which has been planned, designed, modelled, scaffolded and structured to enable them to learn the skills needed to talk effectively.

How can you measure progress?

The deliberate, explicit and systematic teaching of oracy across phases and throughout the curriculum will support children and young people to make progress in the four strands of oracy outlined in the Oracy Framework. 

The Oracy Framework can be used as a basis of formative assessment, enabling you to gauge what your students have or have not yet grasped and informing you what to teach next.

"I  have seen a growth in our students overall"

Oracy at Madani Schools Federation, Leicester

Madani Schools Federation, a secondary girls and secondary boys school federation in Leicester, has worked with Voice 21 for several years as Voice 21 Oracy Schools: “The beauty of oracy for us was that it not only refined the curriculum and linked to achievement and to the rounded and groundedness of students, but also links to the curriculum pedagogy of our staff.”

What does a high quality oracy education look like?

We are proud to work with hundreds of schools and thousands of teachers each year committed to ensuring that they provide a high quality oracy education for their students.  

A diagram shows how the Voice 21 Teacher benchmarks work alongside the Voice 21 School Benchmarks
How can you achieve a high-quality oracy education

Oracy is not a programme to be completed one year and gone the next, or an extracurricular endeavour for a select few, but rather an essential facet of an effective, empowering and expansive education. 

Our Voice 21 Oracy Benchmarks provide a framework to identify, guide and empower teachers who are developing and refining their oracy practice, whether within their own classroom or as part of a school-wide approach.

"Who is talking and how coherent is that talk?"

Oracy at Torriano Primary School

Torriano Primary School, based in Camden, London, has worked with Voice 21 over several years and is now a Stage 3 Voice 21 Oracy School. “We talk about the children having a right to be heard, but who is talking? We can focus on vocabulary, but let’s think about talking in class. Who is talking and how coherent is that talk?”

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