The Power of Speaking Up

The Independent Schools Council’s new partnerships booklet shines a light on South Hampstead’s trailblazing work on oracy education.

South Hampstead High School embeds oracy across its curriculum and widens access to public speaking opportunities through its award-winning partnership programme, Debate Hub. Chris Dearmer and Michael Hepburn reflect on this sector-leading work and its lasting impact on the lives of young people.

In Year 5, students begin a timetabled programme of debating, with over an hour each week. It’s the same programme we share with our state school partners… when they progress to Senior School, our pupils embark on a year-long course: Oracy and Critical Thinking. This involves a lot of debating and public speaking, but it also involves thinking about logical fallacies and how to spot arguments, in a theoretical and philosophical sense.

We have embedded a variety of oracy projects for different year groups. Our Global Issues Oracy Project enables pupils to develop their understanding of international current affairs.  We partner with a school in Rwanda for our annual Think Global, Act Local project – a sustainability challenge whereby pupils work together to reduce waste and effect change. And, of course, we have good oracy happening in lots of classrooms, with teachers supported by the debating and oracy departments.

We have lunchtime debate clubs every day of the week and an after-school club four or five days a week, from beginner to advanced. We compete in about 20 competitions annually and host around 12 competitions a year where other schools come to us – our own students take part in a lot of those or help run them.

We are also in the process of creating our own school-directed course in oracy – which we believe is the first of its kind. From next September, GCSE students will be able to take our two-year course – Scholarship Through Speech – and earn an in-house qualification at the end.

Since appointing a Head of Debating, we’ve been building up a culture of oracy; it really has become a cornerstone of what we do here. Through our Debate Hub, we share a wealth of resources and debating opportunities with our parents schools – it’s a statement of the importance we place in that area.

We’ve always encouraged girls at South Hampstead to speak up and speak out – that’s been something of a mantra we’ve had for many years.

It’s on us to equip young women not only with the belief that their voice is important, but with the skills to advocate for things they care about with calmness and surety.

Read the full article here.