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It would seem that oracy is the new in thing in education. We have oracy planned for our whole school CPD in the coming months.

It is hard not to agree that increasing reading ability among students should be the priority and a better way to improve outcomes for students.

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I'm really sorry to hear that Michael. Whenever I meet a new initiative I always ask 'what is the likely impact of this on progress?'

Because SLT believe that progress is a good thing, this is not as confrontational as it seems. You can always preface it with 'I love the idea of making my students better speakers. What is the evidence that these approaches will lead to better progress in my subject?"

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Very interesting Dominic. I definitely agree that reading is best. However, I remember the halcyon days before the “new” GCSEs when we would often do lots of speaking and listening based activities in lessons including discussion and debate - when speaking and listening actually counted towards the GCSE grade instead of one activity being shoe horned in!

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It seems so long ago, doesn't it!

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