St Martin-in-the-Fields High School For Girls - a Church of England School in South London

Oracy Champions

Y11 TALK ABOUT THE FUTURE (a Jack Petchey funded event)Thursday 22nd February 2024. The session today was very entertaining as well as interactive. My Jack Petchey trainer was Al. He was very funny, patient, and handled certain interruptions professionally. I was very anxious at first, because the last time we did a Jack Petchey workshop, everyone in the year group had to do a speech individually and the idea of speaking publicly does not please me at all. However, even at the start of the workshop, Al made sure to make everyone feel included and made us play very fun games to break the ice. Thankfully, this session was different and not like the one from year 9. We still had to speak in front of the class, but due to the fun and comfortable environment he provided for us, I did not feel nervous at all. The topics we talked about were topics I have heard of many times before, but never really got into depth, for example, being able to identify my skills, where I can improve and how to prepare for a real life interview. The way he instructed the sessions made sure we never got bored and we all had a chance to develop our communication and listening skills. Al was so fun I would not mind having him again!

Annette Rodriguez Teran

Congratulations to Annette, Akistina, Ellie, Malika, Syrine and Moyin, and all six were selected Oracy Champions by their Trainer based on a number of factors such as demonstrating excellent communication skills, and making great progress or stepping outside their comfort zone during the workshop, making them ideal ambassadors to promote oracy across our school.

Trainer Feedback

Trainer feedback:

‘Very warm welcome from the Headtacher Ms Okokon, and the Head of MFL, Careers & EAL Lead, Isabelle. Lots of sadness that the school is closing at the end of the year, but this didn't affect the enthusiasm and positivity of the teachers, which clearly influenced the can-do attitude of students and their commitment to the workshop. They enjoyed a wide range of games and activities throughout the day, which kept them occupied and engaged. They took to the skills and experience audit keenly and spoke bravely to the group about where they had developed their skills, some through the adversity of migration. The interview practice they enjoyed gave them some taste of the challenges they will face in the next steps on the education/career journey, and how to manage them with a resilient mindset.’

‘A lovely welcome into the school from the receptionist Lesley and I met Isabelle soon after - had a lovely chat in French. The room was a bit small but workable. The students were well engaged throughout the day and had a real sense of supportiveness to other students. Some of the students found some of the activities harder to fulfil but with extra explanation were able to participate. MF and AEJ were oracy champs showing a very mature way of interviewing providing an excellent level of detail and examples in their answers. Both were very well engaged throughout the day and interviewed very well. Runners up were JG who was also very adept at communicating at a very mature level making good eye contact and detail. AMcG showed a great deal of resilience and participated well as the day progressed and was very accomplished in her work.’

‘This was a well organised day, and we were beautifully looked after by Isabelle. We had a great chat with the inspirational head teacher Ms Okokon at lunchtime. All the teachers I met were very enthusiastic about the workshop. The Head of English sat in twice during my workshop and her support was fantastic. She was very, very pleased with the advancement during the day as she informed me that there were some students in the class with SEN needs who rose brilliantly to every task. The students seemed nervous and shy on first meeting, and many gave themselves very low scores in the confidence line. As the day progressed it became clear that they were engaged and used the activities to great success which led to some fantastic skills talks. It was evident that all students were challenging themselves and showed bravery in using the TTT techniques to get comfortable with public speaking and interview techniques.’