Ely College wins prestigious national award for oracy research

Ely College is celebrating national recognition after winning the 2026 Douglas Barnes Award for Classroom Research in Oracy, run by Voice 21.

The award recognises outstanding classroom research exploring the role of talk in teaching and learning. Ely College's winning project, ‘Scaffolded peer coaching and the quality of collaborative talk’, was led by three members of staff: Simona Vicol (Mathematics), Eliza Bernal (Sociology) and Stuart Patman (Sixth Form).

The cross-curricular research explored whether explicitly teaching students how to coach one another could improve classroom discussions and deepen understanding. Working across Mathematics, Sociology and Criminology, the team found that effective collaborative talk looks different across subjects, with discussions becoming either longer and richer or shorter, more focused and purposeful.

Simona Vicol and Samantha Rasmussen collected the award at the Great Oracy Exhibition, Voice 21's national conference, on 14th of October. Samantha, Vice Principal at Ely College, also presented a session at the conference, sharing the college's experience of embedding oracy across a large secondary school and sixth form, including the challenges encountered and solutions developed along the way.

The achievement comes alongside further national recognition for Ely College, which features as a case study in ‘Create an Oracy Curriculum’, a new book by Voice 21's Amy Gaunt and Alice Stott.

These achievements highlight the college's commitment to developing confident communicators and sharing effective practice with the wider educational community.