Oracy - the ability to express oneself fluently - has been included in plans to modernise the national curriculum, with a new focus on equipping young people with the skills they need for life and work. In Radio 4's round-table discussion programme, Anne McElvoy and guests look at how you teach oracy and explore the value of passing on traditional knowledge using methods like songs and poems. Joining Anne are

Reetika Subramanian is based at the University of East Anglia and is currently a researcher in residence with BBC Radio 4. She hosts the Climate Brides podcast and studies women’s work songs as records of environmental change

Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at Durham University who champions the use of Classical rhetoric to foster oracy in schools

Philip Collins, former speechwriter to Tony Blair

Edith and Philip have taken part in Our Public House, a theatre performance staged by Dash Arts that builds on workshops with over 700 people nationwide who shared their visions for our nation's future.

Stephen Batchelor, secular Buddhist teacher and writer and author of Buddha, Socrates and Us: Ethical Living in Uncertain Times, published by Yale University Press (2025).

Tom F. Wright, historian of rhetoric at the University of Sussex

Producer: Eliane Glaser

Episode 118: 5 Things To Focus On