The Launch of the Oracy Network

Talk The Talk attended the launch of ‘The Oracy Network’ at The House of Lords on Tuesday 8th November.

 

We have long been campaigning for speaking and listening – oracy – to be given the same priority within schools as literacy and numeracy.

 

Oracy is the foundation of literacy – which will come as no surprise – how do toddlers master a language…?

 

Presided over by The Right Honourable The Lord Boateng – the event saw like-minded people from within education across the UK come together to call for greater emphasis on the development of spoken communication skills in schools.

 

Research launched at the event highlighted how important teachers consider oracy to be. The research from think tank LKMco together with a polling of teachers by YouGov makes for fascinating reading.

 

The full publication is available here

 

In brief – of the 900+ teachers polled – the majority of classroom teachers (68%) and headteachers (84%) felt that the development of oracy skills was ‘very important’.

 

In worrying contrast – 57% of respondents said that they had not received any training in oracy in the last three years, whilst 53% said they would not know where to look for more information if they wanted it!

 

The event also saw the publication of Speaking Frankly a collection of essays by teachers, educationalists and oracy experts. You can download the entire publication here.