Oracy to Have Equal Status with Reading and Writing

On 15 October 2026, the Education Secretary for England, Lucy Powell, spoke about oracy at the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) conference. The central message was that oracy will be ‘hardwired’ into the new curriculum, now being officially given equal status to reading and writing, a request championed by the Oracy Education Commission in their 2024 report, We Need to Talk. 

Whilst the announcement has been welcomed as an important step towards recognising the value of oracy in education, it also raises a number of questions for teachers and school leaders. In this blog, we will look beyond the headlines to explore the announcement in further detail and consider the practical implications for schools.

There were five main elements to the Education Secretary’s announcement on oracy:

1. Oracy will have equal status to reading and writing

Speaking, listening and communicating are to become a new strand of the English curriculum. The intention is to make these skills an explicit entitlement for all pupils, rather than something that depends on individual teachers or school provision.

2. Oracy will be embedded across subjects

It is intended to feature in everyday learning, from primary school through to GCSE and beyond, including opportunities to explain ideas, listen actively, discuss different viewpoints and communicate clearly.

3. Speaking will feature in curriculum content and assessment

Powell said the changes would cover both what pupils learn and how their spoken communication is assessed. The details of how this will work, including the implications for GCSE English, need to be developed with Ofqual and the profession.

4. Oracy should reduce inequalities in opportunity

Powell argued that confident communication has too often been a marker of privilege. Some children receive extensive opportunities for debate, presentations and discussion outside school, while others rely on school to develop these skills.

5. Communication matters in an age of AI

Why must we champion oracy? Powell’s argument is that the ability to express ideas, listen, build relationships and communicate with other people will remain essential as artificial intelligence changes the world of work.

While many educators have welcomed this practical oracy focus, there are important questions about curriculum time, assessment, teacher workload and how the proposals will work in practice. Here, we look at some of these concerns in the hope of supporting a better understanding of what oracy means for educators in this new era.

1. How will Oracy be different from the speaking and listening element in the current English curriculum?

• From opportunities to talk to explicit teaching

Within purposeful oracy practice, children will not simply be asked to discuss a question or present their work. Instead, teachers will identify the specific communication skills pupils need, model them, provide guided practice and give feedback.

• From talking as an activity to talk as a learning tool

Pupils will be expected to use structured dialogue to reason, test ideas, solve problems, deepen understanding and learn subject-specific vocabulary. Talk will become an integral part of how learning happens.

• From broad expectations to clearer progression

Teachers will have more guidance on what pupils should learn, how skills develop and what increasingly sophisticated communication looks like from Reception through to Year 6.

• From occasional performance to a broader range of talk

Pupils will develop both exploratory talk – thinking together, questioning and reasoning – and presentational talk, such as explaining, performing, debating and speaking to different audiences.

For example, in a Year 4 writing lesson, pupils might already be asked to discuss a character. An explicit oracy approach would additionally teach them how to build on a partner’s interpretation, justify an inference with evidence, disagree respectfully and select precise vocabulary. They could then apply that thinking to their written response.

2. How will it fit into an already packed full curriculum?

This is one of the most important implementation questions. Oracy cannot simply be added as another subject, with a separate lesson, a new set of objectives and additional assessment paperwork, without considering what schools can realistically deliver.

The most sustainable approach is to embed oracy within existing curriculum teaching while identifying specific skills that need explicit instruction and practice.

The One Education Oracy Award advocates building oracy objectives into curriculum sequences and offering a range of meaningful speaking experiences. Schools may focus initially on one particular curriculum area to embed strategies before developing an oracy culture across learning.

What could this look like in practice?

Existing curriculum area	Oracy embedded within the lesson
Reading	Pupils justify an inference, compare interpretations and explain how evidence supports their view.
Writing	Pupils orally rehearse sentences, discuss vocabulary choices and refine ideas before writing.
Mathematics	Pupils explain their reasoning, compare strategies and challenge misconceptions respectfully.
Science	Pupils predict, hypothesise, explain evidence and evaluate conclusions.
History and geography	Pupils construct arguments, use subject-specific language and consider contrasting perspectives.
PSHE and wider school life	Pupils practise listening, negotiation, respectful disagreement and collaborative problem-solving.

Does this mean oracy should never have dedicated teaching time?

No. Some skills need to be taught directly. Children may need explicit instruction in how to build on an idea, ask a probing question, give a reason or speak appropriately for a particular audience. This could take place in a particular lesson dedicated to oracy development, e.g Talk Tuesdays or through a oracy focused lesson such as R.E or P.S.H.C.E where oracy is the focus.

The EEF’s evaluation of the early Voice 21 model found that a comprehensive approach could require dedicated curriculum time, whole-school cultural change and staff training. It also identified the need to strengthen exploratory talk and provide varied formal and informal opportunities. This is a useful warning against assuming that simply embedding discussion into lessons will be sufficient. 

A sensible implementation model would combine:

• Brief, explicit teaching of particular oracy skills.
• Frequent, purposeful opportunities to practise those skills in existing lessons.
• Occasional dedicated experiences such as debates, presentations, performances and structured discussions.
• A shared whole-school approach to language, listening and classroom dialogue.

The Curriculum and Assessment Review itself recognises the need to balance breadth and depth and to leave teachers room to respond to pupils’ needs. 

School leaders should therefore consider what existing practices can be strengthened or streamlined, rather than adding new activities to an already full timetable. Oracy should help pupils learn the curriculum, not compete with it.

3. How will schools include every pupil?

The Government has framed oracy as an entitlement for every child. Lucy Powell’s October 2026 announcement emphasised that communication opportunities should not be reserved for pupils who already speak confidently or have access to enrichment beyond school. However, equal entitlement does not mean every pupil should be expected to communicate in the same way.

A genuinely inclusive approach recognises differences in language experience, confidence, speech and language development, neurodiversity, disability and communication preferences. It also recognises that children may speak different dialects or languages at home.

Voice 21 has highlighted the risks of a narrow interpretation of Standard English and of equating fluency with effective communication. The aim should be to broaden pupils’ communication repertoires while valuing their linguistic identities. 

What does inclusive oracy look like?

• Start with low-pressure participation

Use thinking time, paired rehearsal, visual prompts and small-group discussion before asking pupils to contribute to a whole-class conversation. This allows children to develop their confidence, organise their thoughts and rehearse their ideas before sharing them with a wider audience.

• Make the language of participation explicit

Teach sentence stems such as “I agree because…”, “I would like to add…” and “What evidence supports that idea?”  to help children engage constructively in discussion. Pre-teaching relevant vocabulary and modelling responses can further support pupils in expressing their thoughts clearly and responding to others.

• Offer different routes into communication

Depending on individual needs, pupils may benefit from visual supports, communication boards, augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), additional processing time or alternative ways to contribute .Where appropriate, teachers should work collaboratively with specialist staff to identify and implement strategies that enable all pupils to communicate effectively and participate fully.

• Ensure participation is distributed fairly

Use structured roles, turn-taking routines, carefully planned groupings and teacher observation to prevent confident pupils from dominating and quieter pupils from being overlooked. Remain mindful of whose contributions are being recognised and actively create opportunities for those who may be less inclined to speak.

Ultimately, oracy is an issue of equity: learning through talk deepens learning through reflective and responsive collaboration. It is vital that teachers are non-biased when facilitating the classroom discussion to ensure equity in approach as well as outcome.

4. What are the workload and training implications for making oracy forefront?

Making oracy a consistent feature of teaching requires professional development, leadership, collaboration and time to embed new approaches. The risk is that schools interpret the initiative as another monitoring and documentation requirement rather than a change in the quality of classroom interaction.

What training will teachers need?

1. Developing teacher knowledge

Understanding the different dimensions of oracy, how spoken language develops, the relationship between talk and learning, and what effective communication looks like at different ages.

2. Developing classroom pedagogy

Learning to model talk, teach specific skills explicitly, scaffold discussion, ask purposeful questions and facilitate exploratory dialogue rather than relying on unstructured group work.

3. Assessment and responsive teaching

Recognising pupils’ strengths and next steps, using observation and focused feedback, and adapting teaching to meet different communication needs.

4. Collaborative implementation

Giving staff time to plan together, observe practice, share effective strategies and review examples of pupils’ talk across year groups and subjects.

Schools adopting oracy should plan for:

• Initial staff development and a review of existing provision.
• Time for curriculum and year-group planning.
• Coaching, collaboration and opportunities to trial approaches.
• Proportionate assessment and evaluation.
• Resources and specialist support where pupils have additional communication needs.

How can leaders manage the workload?

The most manageable approach is to build on existing improvement priorities. For example, a school already working to improve writing might focus initially on oral rehearsal, vocabulary, sentence construction and pupils’ ability to explain their thinking.

5. How will the promised oracy framework support schools to ensure a progressive approach?

This is arguably the most important part of the Government’s commitment.

The November 2025 Curriculum and Assessment Review explicitly identified a lack of clear progression in spoken language across primary and secondary education. It recommended a national oracy framework to complement the existing reading and writing frameworks. The Government subsequently confirmed that a primary oracy framework would support teachers in developing confident, fluent speakers by the end of Key Stage 2. 

What should a useful framework provide?

A strong framework should help schools answer five questions:

1. What communication knowledge and skills should pupils develop at each stage?
2. How do these skills build progressively from Reception to Year 6?
3. How should teachers teach and model them?
4. How can pupils apply them in different subjects and contexts?
5. How can teachers recognise progress and identify the next steps?

It is important to remember that the progression should be cumulative, but not rigid. Pupils will develop different aspects of communication at different rates, and teachers should adapt support and challenge accordingly.

What will make the framework effective?

For leaders, the framework will be most useful if it provides:

• Clear age-related expectations without reducing oracy to a checklist.
• Practical examples of explicit teaching and classroom activities.
• Guidance on assessment, including how to recognise progress in different communication contexts.
• Inclusive approaches for pupils with SEND, speech and language needs and multilingual backgrounds.
• Links between oracy, reading, writing and subject-specific learning.
• Support for professional development and implementation.

Until the national framework is published, schools can use existing frameworks and research to audit their provision and identify priorities. One Education provide oracy support to schools to help develop expertise and a progressive framework.

Overall we must remember that improving oracy requires more than creating opportunities for pupils to speak. It requires deliberate teaching, a shared understanding of progression, inclusive classroom practice and purposeful opportunities to use talk across the curriculum.

The Government’s commitment gives schools an opportunity to strengthen this provision. Its success will depend on the quality of the eventual framework, the professional development available to teachers and the extent to which implementation is realistic within the existing curriculum.

A key concern for leaders is to make oracy an entitlement for every child while also making sure that the policy is practical, equitable and properly resourced. Most important is to train teachers and wider staff to understand what oracy is and is not, how to make it equitable and to create a culture of oracy that is not an ‘add on’, but a consistent approach that not only enhances learning through well-structured, goal-oriented talk, but also develops pupils’ skills and strategies in communication across a range of contexts. 

Schools should take the time to learn more about oracy to ensure they create an approach that works for them, based on best practice and founded in evidence.

Through our best practice for oracy projects, we are currently working with over 60 schools across two LAs to provide tailored CPD that develops oracy leaders in schools to be knowledgeable, skilled facilitators of oracy provision. If you would like to learn how we can help your school, please get in touch alice.pepper@oneeducation.co.uk.