Meaningful conversations - Developing oracy across the curriculum - Workshop Overview & Objectives

Oct 23, 2026

Meaningful conversations workshop focuses on developing oracy across the curriculum to improve engagement, achievement, and learning outcomes. It prompts participants to reflect on attitudes and barriers to oracy use, then provides practical approaches for integrating guided conversation into teaching. The session explains how oracy-rich, dialogic classrooms support active participation, deeper cognitive engagement, and confidence building, while strengthening understanding, retention, higher-order thinking, and literacy.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Workshop Overview & Objectives

How oracy improves engagement, achievement, and outcomes

Reflecting on attitudes and barriers

Practical strategies for integrating guided conversation

Oracy in context: What is it?

Opportunities provided by a curriculum rich in oracy

Improving engagement through oracy

Research base: dialogic classrooms

Case study: History

Improving achievement through oracy

Research base

Case study: Maths

Meaningful conversations Developing oracy across the curriculum. Fay Head & John Marsh 8th – 9th December 2025 Cambridge Schools Conference, December 2025 Future-ready: preparing learners to thrive Housekeeping Health and safety Fire safety Washrooms Cambridge Schools Conference, December 2025 Future-ready: preparing learners to thrive Agenda Workshop Overview & Objectives This workshop will help you: • Understand how oracy improves engagement , achievement, and outcomes. • Reflect on attitudes and barriers to using oracy across subjects. • Identify practical strategies for integrating guided conversation into teaching. • Encourage learning through talk to prepare students for future assessments and careers. Cambridge Schools Conference, December 2025 Future-ready: preparing learners to thrive Ice breaker Cambridge Schools Conference, December 2025 Future-ready: preparing learners to thrive Oracy in context: What is it? Cambridge Schools Conference, December 2025 Future-ready: preparing learners to thrive A curriculum rich inoracy will provide opportunities for: • Learning to talk • Learning through talk Cambridge Schools Conference, December 2025 Future-ready: preparing learners to thrive Improving engagement through oracy Cambridge Schools Conference, December 2025 Future-ready: preparing learners to thrive Engagement • Active participation (Physical) • Deeper thinking (Cognitive) • Social connection (Social & Emotional) • Confidence building (Social & Emotional) Research base: Oracy-rich environments encourage dialogic teaching where teachers and students engage in purposeful discussion rather than one-way instruction. Dialogic classrooms enhance students’ thinking, reasoning, and understanding, leading to deeper engagement with the subject matter. Alexander, A Dialogic Teaching Companion (2020) Case study: History Students debate key figures' decisions, role-play scenes or debate different interpretations of sources. Engagement spikes because students are actively involved, thinking critically, and using their voices to explore complex ideas. Cambridge Schools Conference, December 2025 Future-ready: preparing learners to thrive Improving achievement through oracy Achievement • Improved understanding and retention (Cognitive) • Higher-order thinking skills (Cognitive) • Support literacy (Linguistic) • Reduces disadvantage and performance gaps (Social & Emotional) Research base: Pupils who participate in dialogic teacher and learning in science lessons do not only do better on standardised tests of science, but of tests of mathematics and English too [ ...] Dialogic discussion can support growth not only of specific disciplinary knowledge but also broader capabilities [...] which children can put to use in other subjects. Snell, Dialogic Teaching & Learning, The Talking Point (2025) Case study: Maths In advance of a lesson, the teacher considers possible answers that may be given in response to a central problem. They also consider the specific misconceptions that may lead to incorrect answers. They use this pre-planning to inform a classroom discussion of the answers given by students and the concepts underpinning them, encouraging students to articulate their views and arrive at a consensus on the solution. In actively listening to multiple explanations from peers, students are more likely to achieve mastery of the key concepts rather than simply hearing that solutions are right or wrong. Cambridge Schools Conference, December 2025 Future-ready: preparing learners to thrive

FAQs

What are the main objectives of the workshop on meaningful conversations and oracy?

The workshop helps participants understand how oracy improves engagement, achievement, and outcomes. It also encourages reflection on attitudes and barriers, and guides identification of practical strategies for integrating guided conversation into teaching.

How does oracy improve engagement according to the workshop content?

Oracy-rich environments encourage dialogic teaching and purposeful discussion. This supports active participation, deeper thinking, social connection, and confidence building, with case study examples showing increased engagement through critical discussion and student voice.

What does the workshop say about improving achievement through oracy?

It links oracy to improved understanding and retention, higher-order thinking skills, and support for literacy, while reducing disadvantage and performance gaps. The maths case study emphasizes pre-planning misconceptions and using peer explanations to help students reach mastery and consensus.

Oct 23, 2026

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