Making the case for oracy

13 June saw over 140 trainee teachers from ITT providers across Buckinghamshire come together in Aylesbury at the adjacent venues of the Waterside Theatre and Buckinghamshire New University for this year’s Buckinghamshire Educational Priorities Conference.

This year's conference focused on oracy and was opened by Daniel Thomas of School 21 with an address entitled ‘Cinderella shall go to the ball' - Making the case for Oracy. Daniel explored how a focus on oracy had enabled his school, in area of urban deprivation, to improve pupil learning.

Fifteen workshops covered topics ranging from boosting oracy in the early years, transforming behaviour management through oracy and oracy through adaptive teaching, through to oracy through tutor time and a wonderfully titled ‘Brah, yer get me tho:’ oracy, slang and gender in the classroom, to name just a few. It was fantastic to see teachers and leaders from schools across Buckinghamshire facilitate these sessions and we are very grateful for the time and energy they put into these workshops.

Harry Hudson, Head of History at West London Free School, concluded the conference with his session Practising what we preach: the awesome power of teacher-talk. Harry outlined how teachers have the power to be role models and transform the ways our students learn, drawing on his recently published The A-Z of Early Career Teaching (2025) and Must Do Better: how to improve the image of teaching and why it matters (2022).

Many thanks to all involved in this conference. The Buckinghamshire Educational Priorities Conference is an annual collaboration between Astra SCITT and Buckinghamshire New University, which has at its heart a commitment to contributing to system-wide education improvement in Buckinghamshire. We're thrilled that this year the conference was able to grow with partners from other Buckinghamshire-based training providers, including the Buckingham Partnership, Chepping View SCITT and Insignis Academy Trust.

Delegates left with much food for thought and practical oracy teaching strategies, ready for their first posts as ECTs in September.

Below are just a few quotes from the attendees:

Very engaging, I got some takeaways I can use in my subject.

Great examples of oracy in action.

Excellent preparation- lots of helpful info packed into a very short amount of time!

Fantastic speech! Very well spoken and shared great experiences.