Answer extracted from the Education: Joining the Dots podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How have teachers' initial reservations about oracy development changed over time in the trust?
Teacher reservations about oracy development faded rapidly as professional development upskilled educators to guide and structure conversations, even while ceding classroom control to children. Once teachers gained knowledge and confidence around speech, language, and communication, concerns dissolved because they understood how to scaffold and direct dialogue effectively.
When Cabot Learning Federation began implementing oracy work across its 35 settings, teaching staff faced the same hesitation many experience with student-led learning: concern about losing authority, uncertainty about how to manage talking time, and doubt whether their own expertise in language would transfer to facilitating rather than directing.
The turning point came through structured professional development. As Rachel Simons explains in the episode, teachers who received training in oracy principles learned not only what speech and language development looks like, but how to design conversations that build on children's contributions while maintaining pedagogical intent. This equipped them with concrete tools—sentence stems, turn-taking frameworks, questioning techniques—that made handing over space to student voice feel secure rather than anarchic.
Knowledge transformed anxiety into agency. Teachers no longer saw oracy as replacing their role but as repositioning it: from delivering content to cultivating the conditions for children to articulate, explain, and defend their thinking. That shift in understanding—visible across the trust's schools—is what accelerated adoption and silenced the doubts.
"If young people struggle to communicate effectively, many will communicate in other ways, often through challenging behaviour."
Rachel Simons — Reading Lead and Primary English Lead at Cabot Learning Federation. Rachel works as part of the school improvement team supporting all schools' adults and learners across the trust's 35 settings in the southwest of England, which serve children from age two to nineteen. Her role includes driving literacy and oracy strategy across primary, secondary, post-16, alternative, and specialist provision.
The broader context makes this evolution significant. Research cited in Education: Joining the Dots shows that one in five children struggle with talking and understanding words, and up to 40% of students have speech and language issues. When teachers grasp how oracy addresses these gaps—and how structured talk actually improves writing quality (86% of secondary staff in the trust reported this link)—reservation gives way to conviction.
The evidence is further reflected in attendance improvements at schools deeply engaged with oracy work, which show higher average attendance than trust averages, suggesting that when children find their voice, they're more invested in being present.
Key takeaways
- Initial teacher reservations about oracy faded when professional development provided concrete frameworks for guiding and structuring student conversations.
- Teachers came to see oracy not as relinquishing their role, but as repositioning themselves from content delivery to creating conditions for children's articulate thinking.
- Knowledge of speech, language, and communication principles transformed anxiety into pedagogical confidence and pedagogical intent.
- Schools engaged with structured oracy work report improved student writing quality, behaviour, and attendance—outcomes that reinforce teacher buy-in.
See also
What do pupils think about increased time for talk in schools, and what does pupil voice reveal?
In a recent survey at one secondary school, results show a huge increase in students who value talking with classmates as a way of learning. Pupil voice demonstrates the powerful impact of creating space for structured dialogue in classrooms.
How do schools in the trust identify speech and language or oracy needs across different age groups?
Identification of speech and language issues early is absolutely key. Schools are aligning assessment procedures to support inclusive excellence while ensuring early intervention across all age ranges from two to nineteen.
What impact has oracy development had on behaviour and attendance in schools across the trust?
One school that has gone from being struggling to thriving credits oracy development with being transformative, with behaviour dramatically improving and attendance rising above trust averages.