Videos

Podcasts

• The Commission Conversations - Arlene Holmes-Henderson
• Talking Humanities - Accessing Classics - Professor Arlene Holmes-Henderson
• Let's Make This More Interesting - Episode 7: Two thousand years more interesting (with Professor Arlene Holmes-Henderson)
• Against the Lore - Classics is for Everyone

Blogs

• Holmes-Henderson (2023) ‘Award-Winning Author Discusses the Importance of Studying Classics’, Routledge Blog, 18^th July 2023. https://www.routledge.com/blog/article/award-winning-author-discusses-importance-of-studying-classics
• Holmes-Henderson, A. (2023) ‘The pioneering academic who is making classics cool in schools’, AHRC blog, 1^st August 2023. https://www.ukri.org/blog/the-pioneering-academic-who-is-making-classics-cool-in-schools/
• Holmes-Henderson, A. (2021) ‘Classical subjects in English schools: Confronting inequalities of access’, British Educational Research Association blog, 14 July 2021, https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/classical-subjects-in-english-schools-confronting-inequalities-of-access
• Museums journal: https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/opinion/2023/07/the-benefits-of-improving-childrens-access-to-the-classics/ 
• Guardian Article 'They see it is living': Durham professor's mission to get more pupils into classics, January 2nd 2025 : https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jan/02/durham-professor-mission-classics-classical-education
• Guardian Article, Classicists take 'ancient philosophical wisdom' into English jails, April 12th 2025: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/apr/12/classics-philosophy-england-jails-prison-education-durham

Improving oracy outcomes for Blackpool children: Celine Wyatt, Creative Learning Manager, Blackpool Grand Theatre

Stories surround us; in books, online, on stage on the screen and between friends. Stories inspire us, call us to action, connect us with each other and show us new worlds and people. At the Grand Theatre we use stories as a gateway to explore oracy in action. We then use drama pedagogy to practise oracy skills. Our first oracy symposium for teachers and students was held in February 2025, in partnership with Durham University.

The stories that we explore on and off stage provide wonderful opportunities for critical reflection. What we then do, using a range of drama methods and exercises, is suggest how those oracy skills can be improved for the characters, then those areas of the story are ‘retold’.

In our methodology we offer ways for children and adults to strengthen and practise oracy skills. We fuse the four strands of the Oracy Framework (Language, Emotional, Cognitive and Physical) by focussing on listening skills, taking turns, working with others, understanding the audience, critically analysing views, vocal register, gesture and posture, facial expression and voice projection. Through drama we show how these all interact and are dependent on each other to offer a wider understanding of oracy in action.

This is a fundamental element of our ‘Story Led Resilient Practice’ and our awarding winning schools project ‘Tales Retold’ where we have used this approach with over 1,000 children. We have recently trained 12 local teachers who are also Blackpool Oracy Champions through our ‘Drama for Oracy’ training programme.

Examples of our ‘Drama for Oracy’ training sessions are-

‘Your face says it all’

‘It’s not what you say it’s the way that you say it’

‘Think before you speak’

You can see in the titles how these sessions being to combine elements from the Oracy Framework and we adopt an holistic approach whilst at the same time working on developing specific skills like listening, turn taking skills, vocal work, breath work and empathising. We use the same approach with both children and the adults.

‘Tales Retold’ schools project

The ‘Tales Retold’ schools project has been running since 2022 and we have worked with 15 schools. There are currently four schools in this cohort and we are working with

180 children in year five (age 10-11). We use drama pedagogy through story making and storytelling to improve oracy and boost resilience.

Some of stories that we have worked on with and the children have come to see them live at the Grand Theatre;

Pig Heart Boy (Malorie Blackman)

The Boy at the Back of the Class (Onjali Rauf)

Unexpected Twist (Michael Rosen)

Gangsta Granny ( David Walliams)

Oracy Skills improved

353 children scored their competency in a range of skills before and after taking part in the two year project. (2022-2024)

Looking at the change in the average before and after score it’s clear that improvements in all the skills areas were made, which suggests that this programme is having a positive impact.

‘This finding is important because this tells us that the scale of improvements in these particular skills were both widespread and consistent across the different schools and across different academic years.’

Rochelle Morris- Research and Evaluation, Blackpool Council (Tales Retold External Evaluator)

Impact Data – sample of the scores that show improvement in all areas, listening skills had the highest growth and improvement. Scores are out of 5

Watch this video to see our oracy programme in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaUd1l0dJPg

To find out more please visit: https://www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk/category/creative-learning

Our next Oracy Symposium will take place at the Blackpool Grand Theatre in March 2026.