By Rosie Thomson, Deputy Head at Eleanor Palmer Primary School
A Camden Learning oracy initiative has led to plans for a borough-wide debating competition and a Teach Meet-style event to share oracy resources and strategies.
Strong oracy and debating skills are vital if we are to equip pupils with the confidence to engage in successful, productive debate and make their voices heard in a noisy and competitive world.
Research from the Sutton Trust shows that pupils with strong communication skills are significantly more likely to achieve well academically and that employers consistently rank oral communication as the most important workplace skill.
Yet access to debating remains unequal. The Sutton Trust found that pupils in private schools are nearly three times more likely to participate in debating clubs than their state school peers.
We wanted to explore how we could move debating from an occasional enrichment activity to a high-quality curriculum offer and so, from September 2024, Eleanor Palmer Primary School led a Camden Learning initiative.
Working alongside seven other Camden schools – Argyle, Hawley, Torriano, Hampstead Parochial, Kingsgate, Brookfield and Christ Church NW3 – we set out to design and embed fortnightly whole-class debating lessons.
Year 6 pupil: “Debating can be a fun way to settle an argument without actually arguing. I think I want to be a lawyer so it will help with that career.”
In our first meeting, we brainstormed what an effective debating curriculum could look like for our diverse Year 3 to 6 cohorts.
To establish a baseline, teachers designed and delivered an introductory Year 3 debating lesson, using an observation proforma to gather key findings, to help us identify starting points and potential challenges.
We found that some pupils had strong physical oracy skills, such as projection and eye contact, but found it difficult to organise ideas or respond to others. Others were confident speakers but struggled to build counter-arguments or engage with alternative viewpoints. Pupils with additional needs often needed support with turn-taking and contributing spontaneously.
These insights were crucial to informing our curriculum design. Drawing on the Voice 21 Oracy Framework and formal debate judging criteria, we came up with five skills to develop: organisation, building arguments, listening and responding, linguistic and physical.
Teachers collaborated to create practical resources for each strand, including:
- “Do Now” activities blending oral, reading and writing tasks
- tiered games and debate structures, such as paired arguments, layered discussions, citizen-style assemblies
- sentence stems, visual prompts and Widget images to support vocabulary and behaviour
- a bank of debate motions organised by conceptual and vocabulary complexity
- model arguments to illustrate strong and weaker practice.
The impact on classroom practice has been significant. Teachers say they are more confident in planning purposeful oracy lessons and adapting provision for mixed-ability classes. The shared structure has also supported the transfer of debating skills into literacy, PSHE and citizenship lessons.
Teacher: “Debating is such a valuable part of the curriculum, especially for the children in our setting who may not previously have experienced this form of speaking and listening.”
Pupils themselves have enjoyed the challenge, as Year 6 pupils shared with us: “Debating is really fun – it’s increased my confidence in talking in front of other people.” “Debating can be a fun way to settle an argument without actually arguing. I think I want to be a lawyer so it will help with that career.”
The timing of this work felt critical. Oracy is increasingly being recognised as a cornerstone of academic success and employability, as well as social mobility. Underlining its importance, the recent Curriculum and Assessment Review recommended the introduction of a national oracy framework.
Leading on this project has reinforced my belief that debating has a place in every classroom and that, when taught explicitly and inclusively, it becomes a powerful vehicle for equity, confidence and critical thinking.
As part of this initiative, we were delighted that some of the teachers involved shared their learning at a national Literacy Conference and we’re now looking at sharing more widely the learning and curriculum materials from the initiative work.
Read the full initiative report here.
