Oracy And Closing The Gap: The Schools White Paper 2026

Talk The Talk

The government’s schools white paper, Every Child Achieving and Thriving, lays out a clear objective: A young person’s background should not determine their success in education.

Specifically, the paper sets out ambitions to halve the disadvantage gap over the next decade, with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds achieving higher outcomes at GCSE than they do now.

Closing the gap

Disadvantaged pupils are still much less likely to achieve key qualifications and remain more likely to disengage from school, compared to their more advantaged peers. The white paper makes a strong case that raising standards and inclusion can’t be treated separately, and must be addressed together.

The paper proposes a strong focus on:

Broadening and enriching the curriculum to ensure it builds critical knowledge and skills by building on the recommendations of the Curriculum and Assessment Review
Earlier recognition and support for the most disadvantaged young people and those with additional needs, including targeted deprivation funding and specific ‘place-focused’ initiatives, naming the North East and Coastal communities specifically
Driving engagement, and crucially, increased attendance, through a pupil engagement framework and developed attendance services with the aim of bringing attendance back to pre-pandemic levels

Oracy as an essential skill within the curriculum

The white paper follows on from the Curriculum and Assessment Review in highlighting oracy distinctly, alongside other skills, such as financial and digital literacy, which are essential for success in a rapidly evolving labour market. These include:

Raising the status of oracy with the broader curriculum, recognising the importance for future study, life and work
Establishing an oracy framework alongside the current Reading and Writing frameworks
Specifically driving oracy in the English curriculum and other areas including Drama and citizenship

Building confident communicators for the future

Strong speaking and listening skills remain essential for helping students engage, connect and thrive in the global community. Whilst rapid technological development in artificial intelligence is beginning to change some career pathways, a person’s confidence and competence to express themselves and their ideas, whilst listening and responding succinctly to those of others, remains a crucial, and very human, ability.

When we delivered our first confident communication workshop over ten years ago, it was with the aim to ensure that young people further from advantage were able to develop oracy skills to compete with those closest to it. This theme still rings as true today as it did then, and, if the papers’ ambitions are realised, it could mark a significant shift in the dynamics of advantage, opportunity and outcome for young people.

Delivering oracy impact for your students

At Talk The Talk, we engage directly with young people and their teachers within schools and broader educational establishments, delivering impactful workshops focused on oracy kills and building spoken confidence

If you’re thinking about how to build students’ confidence in speaking and communication, we’d be happy to discuss how our workshop programmes could support your goals. Please do get in touch with us at info@talkthetalkuk.org or via our contact page here .

Talk The Talk

You can view the full white paper on the government’s website here:

Link: Policy paper: Every Child Achieving And Thriving

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