Oracy Cambridge is based at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. Our aim is to promote oracy in schools and in the wider society. Our work includes writing papers for governments and other organisations (eg see here), providing training and consultancy for schools (see here), and organising conferences.
Prof Neil Mercer (Director)
“Oracy is important because we all need to know how to use talk to think effectively together.”
Neil Mercer is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge, Director of Oracy Cambridge: the Centre for Effective Spoken Communication, a Life Fellow of the Cambridge college Hughes Hall and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He is a psychologist whose research has focused on the development of children’s spoken language and reasoning abilities and teachers’ role in that development. He has worked extensively and internationally with teachers, researchers and educational policy makers.
In 2019 he was given the Oevre Award by the European Association for Research into Learning and Instruction and in 2021 awarded the John Nisbet Fellowship by the British Educational Research Association for outstanding contributions to educational research. His books include Words and Minds, Exploring Talk in School, Dialogue and the Development of Children’s Thinking, Interthinking: putting talk to work and Language and the Joint Creation of Knowledge. He was co-editor of the Routledge International Handbook of Research on Dialogic Education. See more.
Alan Howe
“Oracy is our first and foremost language skill, and with it we build everything we know, as well as the other written literacy skills. A flourishing democratic society needs citizens who can argue, explain, negotiate, and listen with discrimination in order to distinguish truth from lies… now more than ever!”
Alan has worked at the forefront of educational change and improvement for the past thirty years, as a Local Authority Adviser and Inspector, and with the National Strategies, where he was a Senior Director leading initiatives for both primary and secondary phases in literacy and English teaching, assessment, and teaching and learning. As Director of the Wiltshire Oracy Project (1983-88) and National Oracy Project (1988-1992) he was part of the first significant movement in the UK to establish oracy as a major educational initiative.
Dr Ayesha Ahmed
“Oracy can be used to combat the lunacy at large in the world – people believe a good speaker and talk is the key to working together.”
Ayesha Ahmed is a Research and Teaching Associate at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge and a Senior Member of Hughes Hall, Cambridge. She is interested in the teaching and assessment of oracy and is currently researching assessment of group work.
Dr James Mannion
“For too long, oracy has been overlooked in schools. In my view, the development of spoken language and communications skills should be seen as the central aim of education. It’s a set of knowledge and skills that boosts your confidence, and enables you to read the world and make your voice heard.”
James is the Director of Rethinking Education and an Associate of the UCL Centre for Educational Leadership. He has an MA in Person-centred Education, and recently completed his PhD at Hughes Hall, Cambridge. His doctoral study was an 8-year evaluation of the Learner Effectiveness Programme, a whole-school SRL initiative that led to significant academic gains in subject learning across the curriculum, with accelerated gains among students from disadvantaged backgrounds. James’s publications include Fear is the Mind Killer: Why Learning to Learn Deserves Lesson Time – And How to Make it Work For Your Pupils; Activate, a card-based professional learning resource to help teachers and leaders promote SRL; and Making Change Stick: A Practical Guide to Implementing School Improvement. James is also the co-host of the Rethinking Education podcast, which has had almost a million downloads to date.
Prof Jenny Gibson
“Children use spoken language to build lasting friendships, to tell jokes, to express themselves creatively, to manage their emotions, understand different perspectives and to have fun! Our research shows that spoken language boosts academic attainment as well as mental health – oracy is therefore essential for a holistic approach to education.”
Jenny is professor of neurodiversity and developmental psychology at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. She is a specialist in the development of language and communication skills in children and young people. She leads the Play and Communication Lab, a group of researchers investigating how play, communications and language abilities contribute to wellbeing and mental health. Jenny is a qualified Speech and Language Therapist with expertise in autism and developmental language disorder (DLD).
Dr Lyn Dawes
“Children are not often aware what sort of talk can help them to get the best from their education in school. Direct teaching of essential talk skills and understanding is straightforward and should be undertaken in every classroom. There is a clear advantage for children who learn to talk in school; therefore teaching and fostering oracy should be an integral element of education for all children.”
Lyn has taught in Primary and Secondary schools, specialising in science and spoken language. She has trained teachers at Bedford, Northampton and Cambridge Universities, and now provides ‘Talk for Learning’ in-service workshops for teachers. Lyn has published books for teachers and children, most recently Talking Points, Talking Points for Shakespeare Plays, Jumpstart: Talk for Learning and Talk Box. Lyn writes a blog with photos and poetry on nature at lynwrite.com. For example, Loveliest of Trees – a poem by AE Housman, set to music by Neil Mercer.
Marc Naylor
“Oracy is the foundation of reading and written communication. Without strong speaking and listening skills, our young people cannot flourish. Developing these skills is essential to ensure future generations can communicate with confidence, think critically and successfully negotiate the challenges and opportunities presented by 21st century technology and the media.”
With over two decades in education, Marc progressed from English teacher to Head of Faculty and Deputy Head Teacher. Before joining Bexley Local Authority, he supported teacher development at Ark Multi-Academy Trust as a Teacher Trainer and English Subject Lead. At Bexley, Marc has led the Talk Matters and Difference Matters projects in partnership with the VRU and Oracy Cambridge and established the Bexley Oracy Network to drive sustainable change across the Bexley and beyond.
Dr Neil Phillipson
“It’s through dialogue that we come to understand other people and their perspectives on the world. Whether the subject is physics, faith or football, without oracy there are limited opportunities for joining dialogues, for truly understanding each other, and for living a good life.”
Following Following Neil was a science subject leader in a secondary school in the UK until 2009. Since that time he has been a consultant and trainer, specialising in approaches to dialogic education. He co-wrote the 2017 book Dialogic Education – Mastering Core Concepts through Thinking Together with Professor Rupert Wegerif of Cambridge University. Neil is a SAPERE-registered trainer, providing Level 1 and Level 2a training in Philosophy for Children (P4C) and is an associate of Dialogue Works. He also supports teacher training in his role as a Personal Tutor and P4C lead with Keele and North Staffordshire Primary SCITT.
Dr Pete Dudley
“Spoken language is the best manifestation we have of human thought in action. We study our language and how we use it in its written forms in huge breadth and depth. But although we study formal rhetoric, and catalogue dialects and accents, we tend, in comparison, to neglect speech – oral language in it’s most natural form – because we are blinded to it by familiarity. To understand Oracy is to hold the key to how we think, reason, learn, influence and operate as a social species.”
Following many years as a teacher devoted to improving collaborative learning among pupils, Pete has led developments in the key role of talk in teacher learning and school leadership through (i) Lesson Study (which he introduced to the UK) and (ii) school networked learning communities. Both were the subject of his Masters and Doctoral Studies at Cambridge. Pete currently works as a University lecturer at the University of Cambridge. He is a City Fellow of Hughes Hall, Cambridge, and was formerly the Director of Education for Camden.
Prof Rupert Wegerif
“Oracy is the first medium of thought. Teaching oracy in the form of ‘dialogue’ – getting students to ask better questions and respond well to challenges – is the best way to teach thinking or what I call ‘dialogic intelligence’. ‘Dialogic intelligence’ is what education needs to focus on in the AI age.”
Rupert Wegerif is Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge and a Governing Body Fellow of Hughes Hall, Cambridge. He is the founder and academic director of the Digital Education Futures Initiative at Hughes Hall, Cambridge and on the steering committee of the Cambridge Educational Dialogue Research centre (CEDIR). His research focuses on the theory
and practice of dialogic education with technology. He is author of some very practical books about teaching oracy and dialogue is schools as well as theory books about technology and dialogic education.
Topsy Page
“High-quality talk is a vital ingredient in narrowing the gap and improving outcomes. We must nurture positive, respectful classroom climates for talk, give numerous and varied opportunities to gain confidence in talk, and use specific, deliberate techniques to manage and improve pupil Oracy skills. Thinking and talking must be at the heart of learning.”
Topsy works with schools to develop a culture of dialogue and reasoning across the curriculum. As a qualified teacher, former Assistant Head, Writing Lead and SLE in primary education, she is passionate about transforming classrooms by using pupil-to-pupil dialogue. She has worked as a lecturer, trainer and facilitator in the UK and internationally. Topsy is an accredited Philosophy for Children trainer with SAPERE and Dialogue Works. Her popular blog for teachers is at www.topsypage.com.
Wendy Lee
“Oracy is the foundation of everything! The ability to use our language to support our understanding and to share and develop our thoughts and ideas. It doesn’t happen by accident. It needs teaching and nurturing to grow. At the simplest level, it is one of the greatest gifts we can give to children.”
Wendy is a speech and language therapist and has worked for 30 years across education, health and the third sector, with a focus on children’s communication. Until recently she was Professional Director at The Communication Trust where she led on a number of projects promoting the importance of oracy skills, as well developing evidenced interventions and inputting on national policy and research.
Dr Ying Ji
“Teachers cannot develop in their students what they haven’t developed in themselves. That is the hidden challenge of oracy, and why supporting teachers’ own dialogue skills matters just as much.”