Reading about the Twitter storm that erupted over Gary Lineker’s comments last week was a curious reminder of the power of words. Twitter is an interesting medium as it limits the length of message increasing the value of each word. The advantages of knowing the appropriate word choice to articulate learning, thoughts and feelings are well understood in all circles of education. The disadvantage faced by some young people through not having strong language models is of course well evidenced from research in the Early Years.

Interestingly, whilst the redrafting of curriculum content undertaken by schools in England over the last few years has commonly considered the importance of explicitly teaching subject specific terminology, there has sometimes been less consideration of what teachers are doing with this. Reading and saying a word are different skills and both require rehearsal to master. This needs teachers to stop, listen (not always easy in a busy classroom!), ask the right questions, allow time for an answer, as well as create opportunities for active discussion. It has also been suggested that this key feature of effective curriculum implementation has not been a sufficient focus for inspection. In 2021, the Centre for Education and Youth in partnership with Oxford university published research concluding that oracy did not feature prominently enough in Ofsted’s reporting. It recommends that Ofsted inspectors should tighten up how they discuss oracy in inspection reports being clearer about whether findings and recommendations relate to pupils’ talk, teachers’ talk, or both.

Oracy is a feature of our education strategy Building Back Stronger, with the explicit aims of supporting children’s speech and language development as well as ensuring that Camden children can speak and write with clarity and confidence by 11. A number of Camden schools work with Voice 21 and our early language initiative led by Brecknock, Brookfield, Hawley & Torriano schools. In an era of mass (and mis) communication the importance of ensuring that teachers are skilled at facilitating effective classroom talk has never seemed more important.

This week you have been dealing with teacher strikes and more transport disruption, all with the exam season looming. No doubt this has taken its toll. It’s now only two more weeks until the Easter break, pace yourself and make sure you have planned a good break for the start of April.

Our face to face Headteacher meetings are next week on Wednesday 22 March (Secondary) and Thursday 23 March (Primary).

I look forward to seeing you there.

Stephen Hall

Chief Executive Officer, Camden Learning