THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING UNION
THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING UNION
England & Wales registered charity no. 273136
Oracy Education with the English-Speaking Union
At the English-Speaking Union we equip young people with the speaking and listening skills they need to thrive and to fulfil their potential as articulate and active global citizens. Our portfolio includes high-quality public speaking, debating and oracy programmes, which are designed to help young people engage with the world, speak more confidently and understand different points of view, boosting their attainment, social skills and ability to live their lives to the fullest.
CPD for teachers
CPD workshops are designed to equip teachers with strategies to foster oracy through debate and public speaking. The sessions, led by skilled oracy leaders, cover practical techniques to incorporate oracy across the curriculum, boosting students’ knowledge and confidence in the ESU’s Four Key Skill Sets of oracy: expression and delivery, reasoning and evidence, organization and prioritization, and listening and response.
The workshops are flexible (half-day, full-day, or twilight), tailored to individual schools, and can be hosted at the school or at the ESU's London headquarters. Participating teachers learn to build students' confidence, critical thinking and communication skills, empowering them with resources for a more engaging classroom experience.
Competitions
The English-Speaking Union is renowned for its prestigious oracy competitions, through which generations of young people across England and Wales have been given the opportunity to develop critical thinking, speaking and listening skills that set them up for life. The three competitions (Schools’ Mace Debating Competition, Public Speaking Competition and Performing Shakespeare Competition) reach thousands of young people every year.
Schools’ Mace: This competition, founded in 1957, is the oldest and largest debating competition for schools in England and Wales. Involving around 400 schools each year, it offers students from Key Stages Three to Five the opportunity to discuss and debate a wide array of controversial subjects and current affairs. Over several heats of topical, passionate dialogue, students develop their knowledge of the world as well as their reasoning and presentation skills, in a fun, enriching and competitive environment.
ESU-Churchill Public Speaking Competition: This prestigious competition is the largest such contest in England and Wales, with around 300 teams comprising of a speaker, questioner and a chairperson. The different roles allow students to practise and excel in different areas through the competition’s unique format, which pairs the speaker from one school with the chair and questioner of another, encouraging quick thinking and relationship building.
Performing Shakespeare Competition: This competition inspires students from nearly 150 schools and educational settings to express their passion, ideas and imagination through the medium of performance, while simultaneously developing fundamental oracy skills.
The competition encourages Key Stage Three and home-schooled pupils in England and Wales to discover and share Shakespeare’s love of language, inviting them to present their thoughts on their chosen monologue or duologue before performing it.