Speaking confidence in England’s state secondary schools, 2026
Fewer than 1 in 4 young people in England’s state secondary schools feel confident speaking in front of a group.
Swipe through what our data shows, one classroom at a time.
We ask every young person the same question at the start of every workshop: “How confident do you feel when you speak in front of a group?” More than a third, 37%, have little or no confidence at all.
In a classroom of affluent boys in London, 9 in 30 are confident.
Being less affluent, a girl and outside London each lower the number. Together: from 9 confident speakers in 30 to 4.
A trained facilitator takes the class from talking in pairs to each giving a speech on something that matters to them. Confident speakers double, from 25% to 50%.
That is the standard we are calling for. Today, fewer than 1 in 4 do.
Keep reading: why it matters ↓Being able to speak up with confidence is where success in work and life starts, and where young people connect with each other and find they belong.
learnt skills for their next step
understand more about classmates’ views, faiths and feelings
feel their opinions are heard and valued, from the start to the end of the day
Independently evaluated. In a University of Cambridge-led controlled evaluation, students’ oracy scores rose significantly against a control group.
With confidence, skills and a platform, the share of young people who feel their opinions are heard and valued rises from under 1 in 3 to over 8 in 10.
feel heard and valued at the start of a workshop
by the end of the workshop
young people speaking at a regional event, to their community
“I feel that my opinions and beliefs are heard and valued”: 7 or more out of 10. Young people at regional events are a separate group.
“It’s important for young people like me to share our stories as there aren’t many spaces in which youth voices are taken seriously.”
“…It really boosts my confidence. I’m actually making a difference, impacting someone else’s life.”
of volunteer judges say hearing young people changed their perspective.
“If you ever hear anyone saying that young people don’t care about anything, bring them to one of the Speak Out events.”
Volunteer judge, Central EssexWorkshops this half term (7,426 young people); young people at regional events 2022–26 (364); judges 2024–26 (466).
YouGov surveyed 2,010 adults aged 18 to 39 for us, on average 12 years after they left school.
“…pupils often leave school without the ability to speak confidently and so go into adulthood without being able to make their voices heard.”
Teacher, Dorset · 33% free school mealsA survey conducted online with YouGov panellists for Speakers Trust, 2,010 adults aged 18–39, March 2026. These are associations, measured on average 12 years after school.
So the place to make a difference to young people’s prospects is school.
Poorer pupils, girls and young people outside London are the least likely to be confident. In one school day, their classroom goes from 4 confident speakers to 10.
Ask young people the same question every year and publish the answers by region and background, so everyone can see whether the gap is closing.
21 years of a proven programme that has built speaking confidence in more than 600,000 young people. Seven years of detailed data on how confidence is built, who misses out, and how it shapes young people’s wellbeing, relationships and prospects.
What young people and teachers wrote on their feedback forms at the end of the day. Pick a theme, then swipe through.
Sixteen pages: where young people start from, who is left out, why it matters and what works, with the data behind every figure.
The whole argument on four A5 pages, for a meeting or a busy reader.
Eight cards sized for LinkedIn (1080 × 1350). Tap one to save it.
Russell Findlay, Chief Executive: russell@speakerstrust.org
The same question, asked the same way, of 213,355 young people.
Every young person in our workshops answers the same short questions on paper, from 1 to 10, at the start and end of the day: 213,355 since 2019, mostly in Year 10, in more than 1,000 state secondary schools in every English region. 7 or more counts as confident. More than 4 million answers in all.
National figures are weighted to England’s state secondary pupils by region, gender and free school meals. The one-day figures use matched start and end answers from 8,206 young people, September to October 2026.
Schools choose to work with us, so this is not a random sample, but it is large, national and consistent. Confidence is young people’s own rating: that is the point of asking them, and it is why we also report the University of Cambridge-led controlled evaluation of oracy skill.
YouGov for Speakers Trust (2,010 adults aged 18–39, March 2026); our teacher survey (108 teachers, 2024); neaco, Raise Your Words (2024/25).