VIEWS & OPINION


Talking the talk: oracy should be at the heart of teaching and learning


Comment by TAMSIN DUCKETT, Deputy Director of Standards and School Improvement, Chelmsford Learning Partnership (CLP)


“Alongside reading, writing and arithmetic, oracy is the fourth ‘R’: an essential, foundational building block”. – Geoff Barton, Chair of the Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England. Barton is the latest in a long line of champions for oracy skills development in schools. While strong speaking and communication skills have long been


recognised for their impact on student success, since the COVID-19 pandemic there has been an increased emphasis on developing the ‘lost’ communication skills for a generation of children.


Around 1.9 million UK children are currently behind in their speaking and communication skills, the highest number on record. Not only are oral language skills a strong contributing factor to academic achievement, and closing the attainment gap for disadvantaged students, but they also play an important role in bridging cultural and linguistic divides. Being able to articulate their feelings and meaningfully engage with their peers also improves students’ mental health and wellbeing. All of these factors are hugely important to ensure students flourish and thrive. While the government reviews the national curriculum and promises to embed oracy as a vital component, we believe that oracy should be spread across every subject, at every level. So we have already taken steps to guarantee that all our teachers have the strategies they need to develop students’ oracy skills and have dedicated our trust-wide Continuous Personal Development (CPD) sessions this year to oracy. As educators, we know that oracy is more than the ability to speak,


it encompasses the physical, linguistic, cognitive and social aspects of communication. We have begun the journey of using the Oracy Skills Framework to provide a comprehensive roadmap for how all of our teachers can support students across the trust to develop their oracy skills. The shared language and understanding provided by the framework enables us to work together towards a common goal consistently and means that each element of the framework can be woven into the curriculum across all subjects.


Through our trust-wide CPD sessions, we are able to identify best practice within the teaching and learning of oracy. Whether this is promoting cognitive oracy through the discussion of complex issues in PSHE; verbal reasoning in Maths or building the connection between the body and voice through reading aloud in English, encouraging our students to listen and express themselves is fundamental to their learning in both primary and secondary settings.


As a trust, we also have an advantage in that we can draw on the variety of techniques from across our primary and secondary schools through knowledge-sharing during CPD sessions so that our family of schools collectively benefit. Last year, for instance, one of our primary schools participated in Voice 21’s Oracy October, which saw its Reception to Year 4 pupils build their speaking and listening skills through performing poems and stories to more than 100 adults. Oracy development is a trust-wide commitment. As a trust, we must work collaboratively to embed oracy in every classroom, across every subject, and for every student. Doing so means we can equip our students with the language skills and attributes they need to succeed in the classroom and beyond.


Maths GCSE reform: a way to boost employability prospects for thousands of teenagers


Comment by LUCY KIRKHAM, Head of STEM at SaveMyExams


The introduction of a shorter Maths GCSE course has the potential to positively change the relationship thousands of teenagers have with maths in schools. Many pupils have become demoralised and disengaged due to the continued need to resit the exam to achieve a grade four, but reform to the examination process could contribute to breaking this negative cycle.


A reported 40% of students had to resit the Maths GCSE in November, but the introduction


of a ‘short course’, as recommended by OCR, could help to boost post-16 education prospects by focussing on functional math-based skills. The current curriculum isn’t working for everyone, particularly for teens with alternative learning preferences. There is an overwhelming emphasis on GCSE qualifications, with the perception that they are essential for success in all aspects of life.


In reality, there’s a lot of employment that doesn’t need GCSE level maths, but instead requires really confident, competent, basic and functional maths, something which the current GCSE curriculum fails to adequately address.


Therefore, looking to reform the system with an alternative could prove really beneficial, particularly if these changes coincide with re-training employers, because this will be equally as important. We must ensure that they understand the true value of this type of qualification, and avoid stigmatising those which achieve the grade four via a more function- focussed maths exam.


Such recommendations are what many within education are hopeful of seeing from the UK Government’s current curriculum review, seeing a


March 2025


shift away from assessing children based on knowledge and memory skills within a high pressure environment.


As teachers, we can have amazing conversations with a pupil about their knowledge and understanding of a topic, however when you put them in a room and tell them to write it down in exam conditions, it’s like two different people. It is those pupils who will reap the most benefits from these prospective reforms, because ultimately for some students, the examination setting is not conducive.


Such positive outcomes and changes will not be possible if the issue of teacher shortages isn’t adequately addressed, however. There is a significant shortage of maths teachers, and it is essential to ensure that we have sufficient staff to effectively deliver a new course. Simply condensing the existing curriculum into a one-year program is not a viable solution for achieving meaningful change.


In the short-term, teens can start re-focussing their revision for GCSE Maths. SaveMyExams have created tailored support to the foundation paper, alleviating the stress and anxiety surrounding those additional topics that students don’t need if they’re just aiming for that grade four. In the longer-term, it would be also beneficial for the curriculum to reflect the impact technology has had on maths. Calculators are readily available on the majority of mobile devices, and AI is continuing to influence the way people work, so teaching children to be able to adequately assess, analyse and fact-check could have a greater lasting impact.


There is also still more work to be done from an earlier age, making sure that students are coming to secondary school with an adequate set of maths skills, so that time isn’t being spent on repeating things that they’ve already done. A greater connection between the teaching of maths in Primary and Secondary could therefore prove very beneficial.


www.education-today.co.uk 27


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