Our Project Activities
Below are details of the some of the ways that we have been using our project findings to engage with policymakers, educators and the general public.
Action Research Projects with State School Leaders
Since 2022, in association with the English Speaking Union, we have been running annual scheme for teachers and school leaders from across the UK to attend CPD training in central London and develop oracy programmes in their schools, before presenting their findings at annual conference at the ESU’s Dartmouth House. The most recent conference took place in October 2025.
For information on this scheme or how your school can apply to take part click here
BBC Radio 4 Free Thinking episode on ‘Oral Tradition and Oracy’
In March 2026, our project helped convene a special episode of BBC Radio 4’s Free Thinking on the topic of oracy education and oral traditions.
Tom. F Wright appeared as an expert guest, alongside Edith Hall (Durham University) Philip Collins (editor of Prospect), Reetika Subramanian (UEA), Stephen Batchelor (author of Buddha, Socrates and Us). The programme was hosted by Anne McElvoy.
You can listen to the episode on BBC Sounds (click on the image)
Brighton and Hove Young Speakers’ Challenge
Since 2024, in association with Brighton and Hove Council we have been running an annual oral training scheme with all ten state secondary schools in the city. Pupil premium students take part in oracy training led by first generation scholar students from the University of Sussex, before taking part in a special speech delivering ceremony on campus each summer.
For information on the scheme see here
The 2026 News UK Lecture at University of Oxford on ‘The Politics of Oracy and the Post-Literacy Panic’
Tom F. Wright delivered this keynote lecture in March 2026, tying together two apparently separate debates: the ‘end of reading’ panic and the revival of ‘oracy’.
Both, he argued, are grappling with the same underlying question: what kinds of communicative capacities do democratic societies require? Tom traced that question back to the nineteenth century, showing how the language of ‘inarticulacy’ shaped ideas of political fitness and education, and returned to the present to suggest that the politics of oracy is ultimately about how societies distribute the capacity for articulation: who can speak, whose speech counts, and under what conditions it is cultivated.
Policy Roundtable in the Houses of Parliament on ‘The Productivity Case for Oracy’
In May 2025, in association with the English Association, we organised a policy roundtable in Parliament to make the case that oracy can be an engine of productivity for the UK economy. We brought senior figures from KPMG, exam boards AQA and Pearson, the Department of Education, the British Academy, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the National Literacy Trust, the Children’s Commissioner for England.
Working with Exam Boards to reform GCSE English
In the spring of 2025, Tom Wright was invited by the exam board Pearson AQA to feed in to the reforms of their GCSE English qualifications. Alongside other experts and practitioners, he helped develop ideas for how exam boards can incorporate speaking and listening into the qualifications of the future.
You can see Tom’s summary in the video here. To watch a range of other contributions and to read Pearson AQA’s report click here
We Need to Talk (2024): The Oracy Education Commission Report
During 2024, our team made substantial contributions to We Need to Talk, the official report of the Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England. Stephen Coleman was a member of the 9 person Commission.
You can read the full report here and a summary report here
Speak for Change (2021) All Party Parliamentary Group for Oracy Report
In 2021, Arlene Holmes-Henderson was the author of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Oracy’s report into the future of speaking and listening education in England and Wales.
You can read the full report here
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