Nice to teach you: Brucey can help children improve oracy, says classic professor

A former teacher says learning classical rhetoric can equip primary students in the north-east with skills to become better communicators

It has been employed for thousands of years, taking in everything from Julius Caesar writing veni, vidi, vici (“I came, I saw, I conquered”) to Bruce Forsyth greeting fans with “nice to see you, see you nice”.

Caesar, Forsyth and countless others, from William Shakespeare to Nicki Minaj, are all users of classical rhetoric, the ancient formula for crafting and delivering persuasive arguments. Now, an academic argues that teaching it in schools would improve the nation’s communication skills no end.