Learning to speak in front of an audience, and present your ideas in a way that is clear, concise and compelling is an essential skill. Routinely, when pollsters ask “What is your biggest fear?”, the number one answer is “Speaking in public”. At Noisy Classroom we believe that learning how to speak in front …
I accompanied a group of 8 debaters from Clapton Girls’ Academy to the World Schools Debate Academy in mid-June. Now, while at Noisy Classroom we love all forms of debating, we might have a slight bias towards the Worlds Schools Format. Alice and Debbie both debated for England when they were at school and Debbie …
Oracy is an important skill precisely because it helps us to engage with, question, critique and respond to complex ideas about all walks of life. Poltiics can often feel the realm of the elite, limited to a small group of people who all went to the same schools and the same universities. The more students …
Young People and Politics – Organising a Mock Election In Your School Read More »
Some teachers I meet express the idea that debating belongs in a debating society, run after school and primarily aimed at gifted students. Others have embraced the idea of debate as a teaching tool but resist the notion of a debating club or debating competitions, often because they see them as something for private schools only. The …
Before you start wondering, Noisy Classroom hasn’t decided to move into the field of robotics (at least, not yet). Today, we are thinking about how technology can have an impact on oracy. While they may have been slow to adapt, schools have now embraced technology; from smart whiteboards in the classroom, to biometric scanners in …
There are certain subjects, and certain students, that debating seems particularly well suited too. The potential PPE candidate. The aspiring lawyer. A history lesson on the causes of the first world war. Most English lessons. Similarly, there are certain students and certain subjects, where the assumption is that debating is ‘not for them’. In an …
Speaking and Listening in education have had a rough time over the last few years. They have been removed from the GCSE English assessment and downgraded in the new primary school curriculum. Nick Gibb has been quoted as saying that raising the profile of spoken language could “encourage idle chatter in class”. Clearly what speaking …
Speaking and Listening has been re-branded as “oracy” and now it’s being taken seriously Read More »
