header-logo header-logo

Bar Council encourages children to speak out for success

24 September 2025
Issue: 8132 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , Training & education
printer mail-detail
The Bar Council has launched a pioneering programme to improve children’s listening and speaking skills, boost their confidence and tackle career stereotypes at an early age

The Speak for Success programme aims to improve oracy skills among 7–11-year-olds, and has been developed through a collaboration of barristers, teachers and educational consultancy Hark. A pilot of 170 pupils produced impressive results, and it is now being rolled out across England and Wales. It can be delivered by teachers, with optional support from barrister volunteers.

The children are taught the importance of tone of voice, why questions are important, how to build on what other people say, how to respectfully disagree, summarise what others say and put their oracy skills into practice.

Bar Council chair Barbara Mills KC said: ‘Our programme will help children find their voice, express themselves clearly and build a foundation for lifelong success.’ 

Issue: 8132 / Categories: Legal News , Profession , Training & education
printer mail-details

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Myers & Co—Jen Goodwin

Myers & Co—Jen Goodwin

Head of corporate promoted to director

Boies Schiller Flexner—Lindsay Reimschussel

Boies Schiller Flexner—Lindsay Reimschussel

Firm strengthens international arbitration team with key London hire

Corker Binning—Priya Dave

Corker Binning—Priya Dave

FCA contentious financial regulation lawyer joins the team as of counsel

NEWS
Social media giants should face tortious liability for the psychological harms their platforms inflict, argues Harry Lambert of Outer Temple Chambers in this week’s NLJ
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024—once heralded as a breakthrough—has instead plunged leaseholders into confusion, warns Shabnam Ali-Khan of Russell-Cooke in this week’s NLJ
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has now confirmed that offering a disabled employee a trial period in an alternative role can itself be a 'reasonable adjustment' under the Equality Act 2010: in this week's NLJ, Charles Pigott of Mills & Reeve analyses the evolving case law
Caroline Shea KC and Richard Miller of Falcon Chambers examine the growing judicial focus on 'cynical breach' in restrictive covenant cases, in this week's issue of NLJ
Ian Gascoigne of LexisNexis dissects the uneasy balance between open justice and confidentiality in England’s civil courts, in this week's NLJ. From public hearings to super-injunctions, he identifies five tiers of privacy—from fully open proceedings to entirely secret ones—showing how a patchwork of exceptions has evolved without clear design
back-to-top-scroll