The Oracy Education Commission represents a pivotal moment for the oracy movement. Chaired by Geoff Barton, the Commission aims to provide a framework for national entitlement to oracy education at all stages of the curriculum in England.
— Oracy Education Commission (@oracycommission) March 15, 2024
Commission Chair
@RealGeoffBarton
tells us why the Commission matters for students
The Awarding Organisation of the Year, English Speaking Board (International) Ltd., has long been a leader in the national conversation for mainstream oracy adoption. As both a member of The Oracy Network, and contributor to the Oracy All-Party Parliamentary Group’s inquiry ‘Speak for Change’, ESB International has been at the forefront of the oracy movement since 1953 and will continue to be for many years to come.
Through its National Impact Report, we recognise beyond any doubt the importance of assessing acquired oracy skills in young people. Teachers spoke to us of the huge impact our qualifications have at both Primary and Secondary level, with notable factors including drastically improved confidence, the ability to work well in a group and collaborating strongly with others as well the ‘real-life’ transferable skills that learners could take home, to the next step phase of their education and eventually to the workplace.
With the Commission’s final report due in September 2024, ESB International looks forward to providing the Commission with its full input as we look to collectively shape the future of oracy education in England.
Oracy assessment: “Preparing for and experiencing an ESB International qualification fosters learner agency and empowers young people to find their place in the world.”
English Speaking Board (International) (ESB) recently participated in the Westminster Education Forum Policy Conference on Literacy and Oracy, discussing the value and efficacy of its Oracy assessment methodology and the ease in which it can be embedded into the curricula across the different phases of education and skills system.
Contributing to the discussion, ‘Teaching and learning literacy and oracy in primary and secondary schools’, ESB’s Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw said:
It was fantastic to engage with other educators and thought leaders in the Oracy and Literacy field and to have the opportunity to highlight the benefits and impact of ESB’s unique Oracy assessment framework.
With tasks targeted to the EY frameworks, the English National Curriculum, Gatsby benchmarks and the Spoken Language Endorsement at GCSE, ESB qualifications are tailored to each year group and can easily be integrated into classroom teaching across various curriculum subjects, providing learners with a unique opportunity to develop their self-confidence and communication skills across multiple areas of study.
Our assessment style is unique, with learners working together within a supportive peer group. The assessment is conducted externally with the completion of the tasks taking place in school, providing a familiar environment where students have the best chance of success.
ESB’s Oracy qualifications are designed to equip individuals with essential skills required to thrive in today’s competitive world, including the ability to express their thoughts clearly and persuasively, work effectively as part of a team, inform, instruct, question, interpret, disagree and advise.
As a contributing member of the Oracy APPG final report – Speak for Change – ESB was also delighted that Lord Watson, Vice-Chair of the Oracy APPG was a speaker at the conference.
Expressing a keen interest in learning more about how ESB assessments can be integrated into the curriculum, particularly at post-16/FE and specialist provision, he commented:
Oracy is a core component of an effective education that enables a child to flourish in learning and in life. In order to develop confidence and competence in Spoken Language, children and young people need a consistent opportunity to develop and practise these skills throughout their schooling.
ESB 2021-22 National Impact Report
ESB had the opportunity to present data and findings from its2021-22 National Impact Report. This research, from some of ESB’s most disadvantaged primary and secondary schools, demonstrates an impact score of 9/10 and 8/10 respectively, and highlights the significant impact that ESB qualifications have on the Oracy skills of their learners in the wake of the pandemic.
You can download ESB’s full National Impact Report here.
I look forward to exploring ideas and continuing discussions around Oracy and Literacy and how ESB can best work with and support other organisations’ work to provide better outcomes for all students in the future.
If you would like to learn more about ESB’s Oracy assessment framework and find out if your organisation is eligible for financial support through our outreach programme, please get in touch with our Business Strategy Team at business@esbuk.org. We would love to hear from you.
ESB’s Customer Experience Team, Jacqui Lee, Isaac Hart and Sue Roberts
Members of ESB’s Customer Experience team, Sue Roberts, Jacqui Lee, and Isaac Hart recently took part in the annual ‘Santa Sprint’ charity event held in Southport.
Dressed in Santa suits, they sprinted (and walked) 5K along the seafront to raise money for a local hospice charity, Queenscourt Hospice.
Isaac performed exceptionally well, finishing in sixth place out of 300 sprinting Santas.
After completing the run, the Santas were presented with their medal and treated to hot chocolate, which was a much-needed reward!
The team were pleased to raise almost £100 for the Queenscourt Hospice. Well done to all!
ESB wishes you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Note about Queenscourt Hospice:
Queenscourt Hospice has been providing Compassionate Care for the people of West Lancashire, Formby and Southport for over 30 years. It cares for patients with serious illnesses, enabling them to achieve the best possible quality of life at each new stage. As Queenscourt receives less than 20% of its costs from the NHS, it relies heavily on charitable donations to keep the hospice running.
Dr. Kanodia carrying the torch during the 2012 Paralympic Games in London
On the eve of the United Nation’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities English Speaking Board (International)www.esbuk.org is delighted to announce the appointment of Disability Rights Champion Dr Kush Kanodia as its new Patron.
A leading light for disability rights and race equality, Dr Kanodia was drawn to ESB after hearing of its Outreach Campaign, which financially supports organisations and groups whose learners face disadvantage due to poverty, migrant or asylum seeker status, or special educational needs and disabilities. He recognises the impact of confidence to enabling success and self-esteem and wants to help us to attract more organisations to access ESB’s Ofqual-accredited confidence-boosting English language and Oracy qualifications.
His appointment comes at a very exciting time for ESB with the recent accolade of winning ‘Awarding Organisation of the Year’ at the FAB 2023 Awards. A key factor in winning the award was the successful implementation of ESB’s Outreach Campaign which ESB hopes will be further strengthened by the appointment of new patrons.
Dr Kanodia, and other new patrons, will play a crucial role in raising ESB’s profile. Patrons who can represent and champion these learners and their opportunities with ESB. Patrons who can draw attention to the work of ESB, its learners’ successes and further help ESB to close the disadvantage gap.
Dr Kanodia received the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award by TiE London
Dr Kanodia, says:
I am truly delighted and honoured to become a new Patron for the English Speaking Board (International). Being both a disabled person and an ethnic minority, when I was young I had my own challenges when learning the English language. I have a lived-experience of the opportunities and transformation that occurs from confidence-boosting English language and Oracy qualifications, which last year resulted in me receiving an Honorary Doctorate from Kent University. I have dedicated my life to supporting both disabled people and ethnic minorities, by removing barriers in society and transforming and leading system for us all to achieve our full potential. I look forward to working with ESB to empower learners, by closing the disadvantage gap, enabling us all to thrive.
ESB’s Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw says:
We are delighted to welcome Dr Kanodia as our new patron. There is still so much evidence of people with disabilities facing barriers to learning that hinder their access to opportunities. At ESB, we want to reach these learners who face disadvantage and help equip them with the essential life skills they need to thrive in education, training and employment, giving them the life choices and freedoms to which they are entitled.
Our specialist Oracy qualifications for learners with significant learning needs furnish our learners with experiences that can help to remove barriers to learning by enabling access to a wide range of curricula, building relationships and a sense of belonging, and developing self-esteem and a positive self-identity. Imagine the impact that sense of empowerment and achievement has on any learner but especially learners who often face systemic barriers that they and their families and carers have to overcome to allow them to flourish.
According to recent data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics (2020): People with disabilities are twice as likely to be unemployed when compared with the general population.
Adds Tina:
This statement highlights the severity of the inequality that exists and which some of the most disadvantaged groups in our society face. As a champion with an amazing track record of success for people with disabilities, I am in no doubt the impact and voice that Dr Kanodia will bring to our work and the advice and support he will provide to our outreach campaign.
Since 2020, our Outreach work has committed £45,000 to support our organisations and we continue to focus on, and support, the areas of most disadvantage. In 2023, we will have committed £30,000 in one year and ESB hopes with donors’ valuable support to secure funding to more than double our annual financial support to organisations, their children, young people and adults.
As part of the organisation’s 70th anniversary celebrations this year, ESB showcased the exceptional achievements of its neurodiverse learners at a live-streamed event which was attended by many ESB organisations and their learners from across the UK.
Curriculum Area Manager at Belfast Metropolitan College, Michael Patterson, said:
“Belfast Met has had the honour of working with ESB and has witnessed first-hand the transformative impact that ESB qualifications have on individuals’ lives. Through our partnership with ESB, we have had the privilege of supporting nearly 2,000 students with learning difficulties and disabilities, helping them to overcome significant barriers. As a result, our students can now communicate independently, not just in the college setting, but also in their wider community.“
Another of ESB’s valued centres, Aurora Foxes Academy, a residential college and training hotel for 16-25 year olds based in Minehead, Somerset, told us why they choose ESB qualifications.
“We have a long-standing relationship with ESB and all of our students have an opportunity to take the assessment each year. At Aurora Foxes, our aim is to prepare all our students to be ‘work ready, life ready’. Our curriculum provides students with the skills for both life and employability and the English Speaking Board assessment helps us to achieve this.” Aurora Foxes Principal, Mark Costello
ESB also heard from The Link Secondary School, an ESB centre based in Croydon, providing a quality education for children and young people aged 4-18 with speech, language and communication needs, including autistic spectrum conditions and Pathological Demand Avoidance.
“We’ve participated in ESB assessments at our school for over 20 years. Over the years, students have gained valuable speaking and listening qualifications. We chose ESB due to the range of courses on offer and the different levels of courses students could study at. It’s had lots of impact on our learners, different things, like structuring and organisational skills, attention and listening, social skills and public speaking skills.” Speech and Language Therapist at the Link Secondary School, Charlotte Yeung
Please watch the highlights from the event in the video below.
Being awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year at the Asian Achievers Awards in 2019
In addition to his disability rights work, Dr Kanodia is a multiple award-winning social entrepreneur and a systems leader. Kush creates systemic change for the inclusion of disabled people focusing on the intersection of disability with his portfolio career.
Dr Kanodia is the Vice Chair for the Regional Stakeholder Network for Greater London with the Disability Unit / Cabinet Office and is a Trustee and Director at AbilityNet. He is also Trustee and Director at the Centre for Access to Football in Europe, Intersectional advisory board member and Trustee and Director for Inclusion London and an Ambassador for Disability Rights UK.
Graduating with a BSc in Management Science and achieved a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with Distinction Honours from the University of Kent.
Previously, Dr Kanodia has worked with some of the largest and most influential organisations from the BBC, HSBC, and the NHS to Bloomberg, Lehman Brother and Morgan Stanley. In 2009, Kush left a successful career as an investment banker to focus on disability inclusion, co-founding the global diversity non-governmental organisation Choice International.
Dr Kanodia was a Torch Bearer for the Paralympic Games in London 2012. He was selected for his dedication to disability rights and his inspirational career. In 2018, Dr Kanodia was cited as one of the top ten most influential BAME leaders in technology by the Financial Times. In 2019, he received the Asian Achievers Award for Entrepreneur of the Year, was included in the BAME 100 Business Leaders Index by Green Park, and he received the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award by TiE London. Dr Kanodia ranked second in the Disability Power 100, Shaw Trust list of most powerful and influential disabled people in the UK.
As a Level Playing Field Trustee, Dr Kanodia helped to gain a commitment from all Premier League football clubs to comply with accessibility guidelines of UEFA and Centre for Access to Football in Europe. In 2021, Dr Kanodia led the #NoWheelChairTax campaign to success. Transforming the largest health system in the world – NHS England. Abolishing all disabled car parking charges from over 200 NHS hospital, helping 2.5 million disabled Blue Badges holders to access critical healthcare during the pandemic.
Dr. Kush Kanodia receiving an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Kent
Dr Kanodia also persuaded the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea to simplify and expand free disabled parking from one to four hours for three of the leading NHS hospitals in the country.
In 2022, awarded with an Honorary degree for Doctor of Science, for having an inspirational career as a disability & rights champion & social entrepreneur with Kent University. The University of Kent acknowledged Kush’s system leadership of NHS England and stated the following:
“This is by some margin the single largest and most impactful change in the treatment of disabled people in the history of the NHS.”
Dr Kanodia’s new campaign focuses on climate & social justice for disabled people by providing reasonable adjustments from London’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) during the cost of living crisis. Dr Kanodia achieved success in transforming ULEZ before the expansion to the whole of Greater London in 2023, supporting over ¼ million disabled people and now plans to create national policy in England.
If you are interested in speaking to an ESB team member about our Oracy and/or English language qualifications and want to see if you qualify for financial support through our Outreach Programme, or if you wish to become a donor to support our Outreach Programme, ESB would love to hear from you.
