Oracy Education Community of Practice

Oracy Education Community of Practice

neaco’s Developing Oracy Skills Across the Curriculum programme has evolved for 2025–26 into the Oracy Education Community of Practice, delivered in collaboration with Oracy Cambridge: The Centre for Effective Spoken Communication, University of Cambridge.

This Community of Practice brings together teachers from across subjects to share, trial and refine high-quality oracy teaching. The aim is to improve oracy outcomes in secondary schools, particularly for disadvantaged students, by embedding powerful approaches to classroom talk across the curriculum. Because oracy underpins learning in every discipline, the programme is designed for whole-school participation, multi-academy trusts, and local teaching partnerships seeking to develop a cohesive, whole-school approach.

Through termly online meetings and an annual in-person event, teachers engage with oracy experts, share practice, and collaborate on approaches that strengthen students’ spoken language, reasoning and confidence. Schools also receive support to implement Research Lesson Study, a structured, evidence-informed model for investigating how classroom talk impacts learning.

Essential information

• Online termly meetings
• Annual in-person event with oracy experts
• Support for whole-school oracy implementation, including Research Lesson Study
• Delivered in partnership with Oracy Cambridge: The Hughes Hall Centre for Effective Spoken Communication

What will students gain?

By embedding oracy within the curriculum, schools enable pupils to think, learn and communicate more effectively. Research shows that developing oracy has a high impact on attainment, equivalent to 2–6 months’ additional progress across subjects, alongside improved confidence, reasoning and GCSE outcomes.

What are the benefits for schools?

The programme helps schools build a sustainable, research-informed approach to oracy across the curriculum. Participating schools nominate Oracy Lead Teachers who receive training and support to champion effective classroom talk, trial new approaches, and share expertise with colleagues. This strengthens teaching practice, supports school improvement priorities, and builds internal capacity for long-term impact.

Curriculum links

Oracy is fundamental to learning across all disciplines. The programme supports teachers to develop approaches that strengthen:

• Reasoning and evidence-building
• Collaborative problem solving
• Discussion, comprehension and critical thinking

Examples include:

• English: spoken language, presentations, persuasive communication, non-verbal delivery
• Science & Maths: whole-class discussion, conceptual reasoning, collaborative inquiry

Research Lesson Study (RLS) - A Collaborative Approach to Developing Oracy in the Curriculum

What is Research Lesson Study?

Research Lesson Study (RLS) is a collaborative model of professional development in which teachers systematically investigate their own classroom practice to improve teaching and learning. It combines the rigour of classroom-based research with the practical focus of professional inquiry. Originating in Japan as Lesson Study (jugyō kenkyū), the model has been successfully adapted internationally as an approach that empowers teachers to become researchers of their own practice.

Within the Oracy Education Community of Practice, teachers use RLS to investigate how classroom talk supports learning across different subjects. Teachers identify a shared learning focus alongside exploratory talk as their method for learning and work collaboratively to plan, teach, observe and refine a sequence of lessons designed around this goal.

How it works

Each RLS cycle involves a series of short, focused sessions that combine planning, classroom observation, and reflective discussion:

1. Focus and plan
   Teachers identify a learning focus (e.g. improving reasoning in science through exploratory talk) and select two or three lessons to study in depth. They agree on what successful learning will look like and choose case pupils to track throughout the study.
2. Teach and observe
   One teacher delivers the lesson while colleagues observe pupil learning closely, paying attention to how talk supports understanding, participation, and collaboration.
3. Reflect and refine
   The team meets immediately after the lesson to discuss what worked, what challenged learning, and how talk could be used more effectively. Together, they refine the lesson for the next iteration.
4. Repeat and deepen
   The process is repeated for one or two more lessons, with different teachers leading. This iterative approach builds a shared understanding of how to make talk a driver of learning across subjects.
5. Share and publish
   Reflections and outcomes are recorded in the interactive RLS Workbook, and schools can share their work through Camtree, the University of Cambridge’s global repository for practitioner research.

Why it matters

Research Lesson Study is one of the most impactful and sustainable forms of professional learning, fostering deep reflection, collaborative expertise, and improved pupil outcomes.

• Research shows that Lesson Study enhances teacher efficacy, subject knowledge, and pedagogical insight (Dudley, 2014; Lewis, Perry & Murata, 2006).
• When applied to oracy, it helps teachers embed dialogic and exploratory talk as tools for learning, improving reasoning, confidence, and attainment — especially for disadvantaged pupils (Mercer et al., 2019; Alexander, 2020).
• Evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation (2021) indicates that developing oracy can lead to two to six months’ additional progress across the curriculum.

Through RLS, teachers become part of a research-informed community committed to making classroom talk a powerful vehicle for learning.

Sign up to become a Research Lesson Study participant

Schools are invited to nominate 2–3 teachers from the same subject area to take part in the Research Lesson Study programme as part of the Oracy Education Community of Practice 2025–26.

Participants will:

• Work collaboratively through a two- or three-lesson RLS cycle, supported by Oracy Cambridge researchers.
• Gain access to the interactive RLS Workbook and guidance materials.
• Have the opportunity to publish their findings through Camtree, contributing to a growing library of practitioner research on oracy education.

To take part:

Download and complete neaco Oracy Education Community of Practice Sign-up Form.

Email your completed form to Ekin.Bodur@admin.cam.ac.uk