Friends' Newsletter

‘ Learning how to Talk’

Articles

In 2009, ESB Trustee, Merriel Halsall-Williams , inspired by comments from Professor

Brian Cox, wrote the following article. Eight

years on, Merriel’s message couldn’t be more relevant.

Leading Times columnist, Alice Thompson, recently supported their sentiments, believing “everyone should be taught public speaking”. She writes, “children should be encouraged to discuss, argue, persuade and question”, and links clear expression to social mobility. Here we can read Merriel’s original thoughts on teaching oracy in schools, which still ring true for learners in 2017.

It is clear from the ever-increasing number of schools integrating ESB practice and philosophy into their curriculum that Professor Cox’s words have not gone unheeded and that the importance of talk is indeed recognised. As a teacher, examiner and co-ordinator, I hear all the time from parents and friends, from school principals and their staff how important, how vital the ESB training is, not only because it develops oral skills but also because of the confidence it gives to young people. Long gone is the notion that this is ‘elocution’, a ‘frill’ or a random ‘off-shoot of the English course’.

the ESB progressive grades is being successfully integrated into the English lessons, project work often linking with other subjects. In the lower grades, prepared talks can range from pets (how else do you learn that a tortoise moves about a hundred yards in three hours!) to football, barge holidays, making chocolate buns, fishing and playing the cello. From a Yorkshire prep school, the head of English writes: “Whatever the grade achieved, pupils learn a great deal about themselves, a revelation that brings confidence from which they never look back. ESB work complements what we ask of them every day—to talk unaffectedly, thoughtfully and clearly, in a way

At all levels I see and hear how the work for

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