English Speaking Board

English Speaking Board (International) Ltd. (ESB International) is an Awarding Organisation and provider of a unique portfolio of Oracy qualifications. For over 70 years, our distinctive external assessment model has brought professional assessors into schools, delivering confidence-building speaking and listening assessments that align with national curriculum standards. Our qualifications span from Early Years to Key Stage 5—where learners can achieve up to 30 UCAS points.

Through Oracy, we stretch the most able, support the least confident, and help every learner realise their full potential. We provide specialist Oracy qualifications designed for learners with significant learning needs and/or disabilities. The transformative effect of our qualifications on learners’ communication skills has been evidenced in our Impact Report and our published article in the Journal of the Chartered College of Teaching sets out in detail the principles and practices that underpin effective oracy assessment, contributing to the wider professional conversation about how to make oracy education both meaningful and equitable.

English Speaking Union

Oxford University Press

As part of one of the world’s great universities, we’re driven by a love of learning and a deep conviction that education is a universal good. For us, every child deserves to be taught by brilliantly professional teachers, working in close partnership with engaged parents, using the best and most inspiring learning resources, technology, and teaching methods. To that end, we work with the brightest, most creative educational thinkers to ensure that right across our vast range of products and services, everything comes together coherently to achieve the best possible results, in any real-life learning setting, anywhere in the world.

Oracy for Schools

Oracyforschools.co.uk and the minibook, “Help Me Find My Voice” help you unlock the voice of every child. Think about children who aren’t all-round reticent, but “playground confident, classroom shy” or who aren’t really listening, just waiting for their chance to speak. We have practical principles, implemented in fun and engaging ways, to overcome barriers to speaking and make sure every child’s voice is heard.

We’ve been getting kids talking for fifteen years at The Philosophy Man, so it’s not just about the talk but the depth of thinking behind it. Our other experience  in philosophy for children, outdoor education, challenging the most able and other classroom contexts, so whether you want deeper thinking through dialogue. We work directly with children week-in, week-out, sometimes demonstrating with classes and unpicking why it worked in twilight training, or running whole year-group events that develop oracy, leadership and teamwork.

Check out our resources too, including Sticky Questions, a whole-school, year-round home-to-school oracy programme for primary schools that costs less than 4p per week per child.