Birchfield Primary School hosted a Collaborative Consultancy Day led by Voice 21 Programme Lead Meshendia Dampier, bringing together leaders and oracy champions from Westminster School, Holy Trinity, and Canterbury Cross.
The purpose of the day was to strengthen oracy leadership through shared practice, implementation planning, and peer collaboration.
The day opened with schools sharing their visions and oracy journeys, creating a shared understanding of priorities across the group. Participants then took part in an oracy listening walk, visiting lessons to evaluate talk-rich practice using the Oracy Benchmarks. This was followed by a structured discussion to reflect on findings and begin shaping implementation plans tailored to each school.
After lunch, the group jointly planned and delivered a student voice focus group, hearing pupils’ perspectives on oracy and how speaking and listening skills support their learning. Leaders then explored strategies for developing the practice of others, considering how to deliver effective in-house PLD and strengthen whole-school oracy provision.
The day concluded with personal reflections and agreeing next steps for implementation, supported by a forthcoming one-to-one online check-in for each school.
Throughout the day, participants benefited from seeing oracy in a different setting, engaging in professional dialogue, and having protected time for strategic planning—supporting all schools to move forward confidently in their oracy journey.
