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How we work with schools

Find out how we support schools to design, develop and deliver a high quality oracy education across the whole school, through our interactive membership video series.

Who are Voice 21?

Voice 21 is the national oracy education charity that supports schools to build speaking and listening into the curriculum, teaching and learning, and wider school life.

We work in partnership with teachers and leaders, developing their oracy skills and knowledge in a way that can be tailored to school priorities and values. We support schools by equipping them with the oracy strategies and resources to transform classroom practice and school culture.

Our programmes are designed to build and deepen expertise and understanding in oracy education and practice, ensuring sustained change across the whole school.

Find out more about how we tailor our support for schools through the Voice 21 Oracy School Membership Series, which you can subscribe to below.

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Voice 21 Oracy School Membership Series

In this interactive membership series, our Voice 21 oracy expert, Kate Wescott talks you through how to plan for a high quality oracy education and what it means to become a Voice 21 Oracy School. 

Throughout the series, you will have the opportunity to:

  • Grow your knowledge and understanding of oracy
  • Explore the Oracy Benchmarks and how to apply them to your planning for oracy
  • Gather free resources to support you to plan your journey
  • Learn about the Voice 21 membership and its long-term plan 
  • Jot down your specific needs and questions, which we can answer during your follow-up consultation call. 

You don't need to prepare anything, simply watch each session at a time that suits you and jot down your questions ahead of your consultation call.

The sessions

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Oracy Benchmarks: creating a vision for oracy in your school

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The Membership: an overview of our support tailored to your context

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Final details and registration: getting you ready for a September start

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Session 1: Oracy Benchmarks

This session introduces you to our Oracy Benchmarks, - a set of practical, guiding principles to support you in planning for a high quality oracy education across your school. 

In this session, you will:

  • Deepen your understanding of a high quality oracy education
  • Explore the Oracy Benchmarks as guiding principles for your oracy journey
  • Understand ways of using the Oracy Benchmark document to create a vision for oracy across your whole school
  • Learn how to apply the Oracy Benchmarks to assess and plan for oracy as part of a long-term strategy 
  • Use the session’s prompts and thinking points to discuss your vision with colleagues

This session is 15 minutes, including time for reflection and discussion with colleagues.

Session 2: The Membership

This session introduces you to our Voice 21 Oracy School membership - our long-term support package that can be tailored to your specific oracy journey, no matter your starting point.

During Session 2 you will:

  • Apply your understanding of the Oracy Benchmarks to our wider support offer
  • Explore what it means to become a Voice 21 Oracy School as part of our 3 year membership
  • Use the session’s prompts and thinking points to discuss your plans with colleagues
  • Have the opportunity to jot down questions and thoughts to discuss in a 1:1, follow-up consultation call
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Session 3: Final details and registration

If you’d like to join us in September, this session outlines what to expect between now and September and the year ahead. After watching Session 1 and 2, this final session will discuss timelines, detail your next steps and answer your final questions. 

FAQs

How much time does my school need to devote to oracy?
Being a Voice 21 Oracy School is an annual commitment. Members generally commit for 2-3 years with us. There are some cases where members register for just a single year. Book a call with us to talk through what is best for you.
  • 2 x full days of training across the year for your Oracy Champions 
  • 1.5 hour online presentation at the end of the year for your Oracy Champions
  • 1 x full day of Oracy Consultancy for your school
  • 3 x hour online implementation module over the year for your School Lead
  • 90 x minutes (approx.) of online CPD per term
They will also need time set aside in the school calendar for Oracy in inset days, staff or departmental meetings to share learning and cascade oracy across the school.
 
Download the Yearly Oracy CPD Schedule to help you plan your time for oracy CPD sessions and understand the training and responsibilities of your school leaders, oracy champions and teaching staff.
Who are my Oracy Champions?
Oracy Champions (OCs) are the staff you select to plan and implement the strategic roll out of oracy across your whole school (with our help, of course!).
  • Primary/Special schools have 2 OCs
  • Secondary schools/All-through/Colleges have 3 OCs
  • You can pay £700 for an additional OC.
We'd recommend that you select staff who have the passion and confidence to cascade a vision whole school - but don't worry, we're on hand to support with the planning of this too!
What does the membership include?

To find out what's available to your school when you become a Voice 21 Oracy School, download our Membership Guide here. Our membership guide is updated each year and includes a step-by-step guide to your oracy journey with us plus all of the resources, CPD and consultancy included in the Voice 21 membership.