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ESB News Autumn/Winter edition 2019

Celebrating success in Salford

Read more on page 4!

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Message from out Chief Executive

ESB Launches New Speech Pathways

What do Learners and Teachers think of our new Pathways

Celebrating Success in Salford

There’s always room for Oracy

A flying visit!

My UK Journey by Viktoriia McAllister

When Champions unite: A Celebration of Success

New ESB Ambassadors are Announced!

Celebrating Oracy from the other side of the World

Speaking for Change! Oracy APPG 2019

In the Spotlight: Gateshead College

ESB Assessors put through their paces

Plymouth’s Got Talent!

Belfast Metropolitan College in the Spotlight

Building Confidence at Newfriars College

We’re refreshing our Speech portfolio for our learners with special educational needs and disabilities

Say hello to our new team members

In Memory

It is with great sadness that we have learnt of the passing of some much loved ESB Members and supporters. Our condolences go to the families of :-

Mr Edward Glass

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Mrs Patricia Dorothy Corrin

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Mrs Margaret Wooster

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Mrs June Lancelyn Green

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We are delighted to announce that our ESB Level 2 Certificate in Speech (Grade 4) qualification has been updated.

The qualification now gives more options to explore oracy in the classroom. Learners can develop their oracy skills in a way that suits them, playing to their strengths and interests.

Speech to Connect - replaces our original single unit qualification at Level 2 (Grade 4 )

Speech to Perform This option encourages learners to unlock their creative side with the performance of a self- composition (poetry, song lyrics, drama or a short story), as well as a performance of an established work. This Pathway builds a learner’s confidence through performing. Learners explore a Key Stage 3 curriculum topic in a wide range of subjects. They are encouraged to give a personal interest talk, review a news piece and give a persuasive speech about current affairs that can be political, social, economic or environmental. Speech for Employability This option supports learners who want to deepen their understanding of a particular career and prepare themselves for the job market. They will also get the opportunity to have a one-to-one mock interview in a friendly and supportive environment. Learners give a biographical talk about a person of their choice, speak a chosen poem or drama piece by heart, recite a chosen reading and respond to questions from their peers. This Pathway still allows learners to improve their literacy and analytical skills. Speech to Inform

To put our new Pathways to the test, we piloted them in 10 centres with over 300 learners and the results were impressive! These Pathways retain our core values that makes ESB an enjoyable learning experience, but add a new format of assessment with new learning outcomes. For each Pathway, learners improved their oracy skills in almost every category.

Personal Development

The Pathways help teachers deliver Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) education, as well as the promotion of citizenship and British values. They also contribute to learners’ Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) development. The results prove that ESB qualifications develop oracy skills, and give learners the confidence they need to realise their potential. In the Speech to Inform qualification, the number of learners who felt they had “bad” communication skills dropped by 50% after they had completed their assessment.

Improves Communication Skills

Teachers observed that an overwhelming 50% of learners felt that their communication skills had improved after their Pathway qualification, and there was a 44% increase in the number of learners who felt they became more competent in delivering short speeches and presentations.

ESB: out and about

We were delighted to get the opportunity to go out to centres, and meet the very first learners who did our new Pathways qualifications. Now you can get the chance to meet them as well…

Boosts Employability

The Speech for Employability proved a great success with participating schools. 75% of learners left feeling their communications in mock employment scenarios were ‘good’ or ‘very good’ – a dramatic improvement on just the 25% who felt they were at this level before the qualification.

Mapped to the National Curriculum

Our Level 2 (Grade 4) Pathways are designed to match the National Curriculum requirements in Spoken English at Key Stage 3 and 4. Teachers from the participating schools saw a dramatic increase in learners achieving the following KS3 criteria: Discussing language and meaning, expressing own ideas and high competency in using Standard English competently.

ESB Chief Executive Tina Renshaw followed in Morrissey’s footsteps up to the famous Salford Lads Club to congratulate the young learners of RECLAIM, a Manchester based charity which promotes youth leadership initiatives and social change, on completion of their Speech to Inform pathway.

Tina added: “We are proud that we were able to offer these incredible learners from this local charity the chance to improve their speaking skills as part of our charitable outreach – and we wait in eager anticipation about what they will accomplish in the future”.

After presenting these inspiring young women with their certificates, Tina said: “I’m incredibly proud to meet the RECLAIM learners. These inspirational young women have now got a recognised qualification that proves they can speak clearly and with confidence”.

Katie Cosgrave, RECLAIM’s Alumni-Lead, echoed Tina’s sentiments: “After seeing the impact ESB has had on these young people, I feel it is incredibly important that we continue to do these qualifications here at RECLAIM. It demonstrates the clear need for oracy to be taught in schools as I truly believe communication is key to success, and I’m so proud to be a part of this pilot”.

Tina Renshaw presenting Salford’s RECLAIM learner with her certificate

VIDEO - RECLAIM learners at their Graduation

‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way’ – that is the view from Nottingham’s Ellis Guilford School when they decided to embed oracy into their jam-packed curriculum…

In addition to RECLAIM and Ellis Guilford, Tina also visited learners of other centres who engaged with the new Pathways. The centres included Lincolnshire’s King Edward VI Grammar School and Plymouth’s All Saints Academy, Court Fields School and Cornwall’s Bodmin College. “The latter three centres did their Pathways assessments with the help of Articulacy UK Ltd. Our partnership with Articulacy continues to grow and bring outstanding results for oracy in the South West”, added Tina.

Design-Technology teacher, Carl Bennett, took over as Head of Literacy to run the school’s Pathways programme to great success. Speech to Inform and Speech for Employability were the two Pathways that Carl and his team selected for 11 eager learners. Says Carl: “The experience was fantastic as each learner had the opportunity to deliver a presentation to their peers. It raised their confidence and of course, the icing on the cake was that all-important feeling of achievement on being rewarded with a full qualification for their efforts at the end”. On visiting the school to present the successful 11 learners with their certificates, Chief Executive Tina Renshaw, said: “Whilst our primary concern was that the service being provided by ESB was of great benefit to Ellis Guilford’s learners, the school also provided us with a great case study in how oracy can be embedded into a school’s curriculum outside of English lessons – and how these benefits can be transferred to other classes”.

PHOTO Carl Bennett, Head of Literacy and Ellis Guilford learners with their Speech Pathways Certificates VIDEO: Ellis Guilford Speech Pathways Learners

ESB’s Chief Executive Tina Renshaw and Chief Examiner Elaine Rudduck teamed up to play an important part in Europalso’s prestigious annual conference.

Elaine talked about how ESB has been strengthening its examination process, in collaboration with Europalso. Says Tina, “It’s always a pleasure to visit Greece and to meet members of the Europalso team. They always make us so welcome and they work tirelessly to promote our ESOL International assessments in Greece. The enthusiasm of the school owners is inspiring, and there is also the opportunity to gain feedback, which is extremely valuable to us at ESB”.

Europalso is our exclusive centre in Greece, operating our ESOL International qualifications.

More than 1,000 guests, attended the annual event held in Athens. Delegates came from all over Greece including Europalso members, who are mainly foreign language centre owners, as well as leading political figures, educationalists, educational publishers and other business owners The conference’s main objectives are to educate delegates about new teaching methods, to exchange views and to present innovative business ideas and actions to empower and support business owners. The event, hosted by Europalso President George Zikopolous, introduced a panel of keynote speakers including Tina Renshaw and Elaine Rudduck. Tina gave feedback to delegates on the overall performance throughout the year for Greek learners, along with some top tips for improvement, including news about ESB’s plans to deliver video resources for school owners. She said that more leaflets were also being produced to assist learners and parents.

Tina Renshaw (centre) and Elaine Rudduck (right) representing ESB at the Europalso Conference

We are always interested in finding out about personal stories behind the learners who take our ESB assessments. Viktoriia’s story below highlights the positive impact that ESB has had on her life. I came to live in the UK in November 2017 with my husband Daniel and our beloved cat, Duncan. I am very proud to say that we are a family of international members! I am Ukrainian, Daniel is Scottish, as is Duncan too! We lived in the Ukraine for 4 years before moving to Cyprus. It was exciting to experience a different culture, but we made the decision to build our life in Daniel’s country of birth. I fell in love with the UK from the very first moment I arrived. It was the month of November, the beautiful gold Autumn season which reminded me so much of my homeland. I had missed this so much in Cyprus, so I am happy to be here, creating a new life together with my dear husband. There are several reasons why I want to improve my English skills and why I need to have improved communication skills. Firstly, I want to feel comfortable in my daily life and be able to communicate better. Secondly, I’d like to be able to use English in my job. I am presently a certified life and business coach and a trainer of American Academy of professional coaching. I work with Russian-speaking students and individual clients so I don’t need to use my English skills to communicate with them at present. However, in the future, I hope I’ll have the opportunity to work with English speaking clients, so it’s important for me to improve my skills.

With this in mind, I decided to take the ESB Entry Level Award in ESOL Skills for Life Speaking and Listening) (Entry 3) assessment. I completed the assessment in June and was overjoyed with my achievement! It was the first step of my plan to speak better English! Also, I have a dream. I’m very excited to say that I’ve written a book, “The Stories of Joy”. One day, I want to be able to translate my book into English. That would be my second proudest achievement! I am really happy with my ESB experience. I loved learning with our international group and Amanda is a great teacher. The assessors and everybody who works at Harrogate College were all amazing! Today, I feel much more confident and am progressing with my English studies with a new fantastic group on the Level 1 Award in ESOL Skills for Life (Speaking and Listening) course. I am very grateful for this opportunity to develop my English Language skills and to ESB which is supporting me on my journey. It has given me the ability to go about my daily life with more confidence. To find out more about our ESOL Skills for Life assessments, please visit our website https://esbuk.org/qualifications/ .

PHOTO - Viktoriia McAlister and her husband

We are delighted to announce the winners of ESB’s 2019 Young Speakers of the Year!

The 2019 Young Speakers of the Year are :-

From 12,000 candidates entered for ESB Speech assessments last year, 10 have been selected as Young Speakers of the Year, in recognition of their outstanding oracy skills. The successful learners have been invited to attend our Young Speakers of the Year Showcase, being held at the ‘home of champions’ Aintree Racecourse. The Showcase will be held in the Princess Royal Suite at the world-famous racecourse, on Saturday, 16 th November.

Alex Lo Storto Nottingham University Samworth Academy

Anagi Bartholomeuz Nottingham High School for Girls

Archie Colville Kitebrook House, Gloucestershire

Ayesha Ahmed Bolton School

Ellie-Rose Heimans James Allen Preparatory School, London

At their presentation ceremony, watched by their families, teachers, ESB Trustees and ESB staff and Assessors, the winners will each perform part of their outstanding assessment including poems, book readings and presentations.

Flora Low St Francis School

Freddie Van Daalen Magdalene House Preparatory School (Wisbech Grammar, Cambridgeshire)

Jimmy Shixiang Wang SherborneSt Edward's School Witley

Maddie Exley Wilmslow Preparatory School

Tom Lewis Runnymede St Edwards School

Learners who have excelled in their assessments are not the only ones recognised at our annual Showcase. The celebration also features three additional categories alongside the Young Speaker Awards. Our ‘Spirit of ESB’ Awards recognise and encourage the potential of all learners, rewarding individuals who show great promise in their assessments. Our 2019 Spirit of ESB winners are: -

She said: “I am thrilled and delighted to accept this award - what a lovely surprise! My work at Belfast Met is rewarding in itself so to win an award is the icing on the cake”.

Finally, the prestigious Richard Ellis Award, in memory of ESB’s former Trustee and Honorary Treasurer, Richard Ellis, rewards an individual who has shown outstanding dedication to ESB. This year’s winner is long-standing Assessor Georgina Marland.

Daniel Apetrei Broadfields Primary School, London

Mason McNamara Broadfields Primary School, London

Liam Hart Broadfields Primary School, London

Georgina Marland

Tim Ye Plymouth Grove Primary School, Manchester

Georgina who has been an ESB teacher and then Assessor for more than 30 years, was herself an ESB learner and in her first ESB exam was assessed by ESB’s founder Christabel Burniston. She continued to progress through the graded examinations and finally took a teaching diploma in Speech and Drama. She said: “As a learner, teacher and assessor, ESB has been a big part of my life. For that reason, I’m absolutely thrilled to be selected for this award as it’s a tremendous honour for me. It also comes as a complete surprise! Being an ESB assessor is such an invaluable and rewarding opportunity to celebrate learning and it has given me many years of pleasure. Each relationship I build with the learners allows me to experience their success and provides me with very many proud moments”. Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw, says, “We are definitely in for a treat with the outstanding performances we have lined up for the day. The positive impact that ESB assessments have had on our wonderful winners will, I’m sure, be evident on the day”.

Guy Odams Heathfield Community School, Worcestershire

Our second major award, given annually, is the Burniston Bell Award, named in honour of our founder, Christabel Burniston and our Honorary President, Jocelyn Bell. This accolade is presented to an ESB teacher who has shown outstanding commitment to promoting the organisation’s values.

Juliet Meighan

This year’s winner is Juliet Meighan, a teacher of learners with special educational needs and disabilities at Belfast Met, Northern Ireland’s largest college. Offering further and higher education as well as vocational education, past students have included newsreader John Irvine and TV presenter Eamonn Holmes. Juliet works as a tutor in the college’s Centre for Supported Learning and co-ordinates ESB’s ICE qualifications.

Sam Coyler from Manchester’s Plymouth Grove Primary School and Lilian Bingham from Bradford’s St Bede’s and St Joseph’s Catholic College are our latest ESB Ambassadors! Every year, ESB chooses exceptional speakers to become Ambassadors. By representing ESB, they have the opportunity to inspire other learners and to promote ESB and its values. This year, we are awarding our Ambassador accolade to both Lilian and Sam for their outstanding performance at our 2018 Young Speakers Showcase. Tina Renshaw says, “Both Sam and Lilian‘s performances at the 2018 Young Speakers of the Year Showcase captivated the audience from the very beginning. Lilian’s reading from ‘A Monster calls’ was delivered with such passion and Sam confidently connected with the audience through his articulate delivery on ‘Black Holes’”. Their first task as an ESB Ambassador is an exciting one. Both Sam and Lilian have been asked to create a brief video highlighting their passion and enthusiasm for speaking and listening. These videos will form part of the ‘evidence’ requested by The Oracy All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) Inquiry, set up to investigate the current provision of oracy education in the UK. Says Lilian, “Public speaking skills occur in my everyday life, for example, I do lots of team sports which means that I need to be able to communicate with my team, both on and off the pitch. I also need to be able to give clear instructions and project my voice across the entire playing field. These are two skills which I have been able to become more confident in through ESB”. Lilian and Sam are both delighted to be honoured as Ambassadors.

Lilian Bingham and Sam Coyler

“The benefits of oracy in our curriculum is immense. Just a little implementation into every lesson can massively improve a child’s confidence and assertiveness”, added Sam. Returning to this year’s annual Young Speakers of the Year Showcase, they will be presented with their ESB Ambassador Award and Certificate and will give a short acceptance speech relating to their ESB experience. Who knows, Sam and Lilian may follow in the footsteps of previous recipients of the award including Sharon Daniel, 2014 winner of Channel 4’s Child Genius Competition, and Hrishi Venkatesh who appeared with Tina Renshaw on BBC Breakfast Television! Echoing Tina’s sentiments that, “There is nothing more valuable than giving young people a platform for a chance to be heard and for them to speak passionately about what interests them”, Hrishi spoke of the huge boost in confidence gained through ESB qualifications and how it helped him to overcome Autism. ESB is delighted to have both Sam and Lilian on board as our Ambassadors this year and we can’t wait to welcome them again at our 2019 Young Speakers of the Year Showcase!

Meet Aaron Seepaul, the first ever Speech International learner to be nominated as an ESB Young Speaker of the Year!

Our Young Speaker of the Year judging panel awarded Aaron a Highly Commended certificate - earning him a place in the top 100 of 12,000 ESB Speech Learners for 2019. Amanda Jardim, the Northern Coordinator of LenguaLynda, was delighted by Aaron’s success. She said, “As soon as I began coaching Aaron I was immediately struck by his keen ability to listen and communicate. His enthusiasm and ability to think on his feet is every teacher’s dream. He has the ability to think “outside the box” so there is NEVER a dull moment with Aaron. He has been a joy to work with!”

A keen chess enthusiast, Aaron is a learner in one of ESB’s most distant centres. LenguaLynda is based in Trinidad & Tobago. Aaron completed his ESB Level 1 Award in Speech (Grade 3) gaining Distinction, from his ESB Assessor Ian Patterson. Says Ian, “Aaron’s incredible chess chat captivated the audience and his clever handling of the Creole dialect had the room howling with laughter. A breath-taking reading of Harry Potter concluded this stunning performance!”

Congratulations Aaron and keep up the good work!

ESB is taking a leading role as a member of the Oracy Network in a recently formed APPG (All-Party Parliamentary Group) on oracy. The APPG – Speak for Change - is championing the value of good speaking and listening skills and the need for oracy to be reflected in educational policy making and curriculum development. Tina Renshaw, says: “This APPG is a subject close to all our hearts at ESB so we are delighted to be taking such a prominent role in the inquiry as a member of the Oracy Network. From its inception, ESB’s primary objective has been to promote clear communication across society - stretching the most able and supporting the least confident, so we have a unique contribution that we can make to this oracy debate. “For nearly 70 years we have been assessing the speaking and listening, Spoken English and communication skills of learners in primary, secondary and tertiary education, and employees in workplace settings. Such history of assessment practice presents an exceptional insight as to the value and impact, provision and access and barriers in oracy education.” The APPG, chaired by Labour’s Emma Hardy and co-chaired by the Conservative Party’s William Wragg, has already been well received with more than a dozen MPs pledging their support and with a number of oracy-minded organisations getting involved. Our role in this Oracy Network involves us submitting ‘evidence’ to prove how beneficial oracy skills are for young people.

Elaine Rudduck, Chief Examiner at the launch of the

inquiry held in Parliament

This has taken the form of us collecting video clips from learners, teachers, assessors, ESB stakeholders, ESB centres and ESB Young Speakers and Ambassadors. Tina Renshaw has also been representing ESB at APPG meetings. As part of our initiative, we also wrote to all MPs, who have schools within their constituencies offering ESB assessments, to engage their interest and to demonstrate how some schools are already embedding oracy into the classroom with great success. In response, in October, Eleanor Smith MP for Wolverhampton South West and vice-chair of the Oracy APPG is visiting Tettenhall College in Wolverhampton. Tettenhall places great value on offering exceptional extra-curricular activities like ESB and their school has been offering ESB assessments for many years.

ESB is also organising a visit to St. Edmund’s Junior School in the cathedral city of Canterbury for Rosie Duffield MP for Canterbury, Whitstable and the Villages. During their visits, the MPs will get the chance to discuss with the young people about oracy and why it’s important to them as well as seeing them doing a selection of their ESB presentations. Tina said: “I am thrilled that Eleanor Smith and Rosie Duffield have accepted our invitations to meet some of our learners. I’m sure the young people will demonstrate the positive effects that oracy can have and it will be an invaluable way for the MPs to collect evidence for the APPG.” In addition to the video submissions and MP visits, ESB has also submitted a 3,000 word Position Paper to the enquiry which sets out our ideas, evidence, good practice and solutions for improving future oracy provision for young people. Says Tina: “It has been a consistent aim since our inception to encourage ease and accuracy in communication and discussion in every branch of life and work. So the focus of our Position Paper is on the interactivity of communication and the personal development it creates, rather than a predominant focus on the performance or rhetorical aspects of public speaking. “We perceive our role in oracy development as that of innovators, for as far back as 1956, we recognised that technology developments have made our whole world more speech conscious. For whatever the industrial, professional or social responsibilities are, every individual will have to inform, instruct, listen, explain, question, interpret, disagree and advise. “ESB shares the Oracy APPG’s vision to improve everyone’s ability to articulate their ideas, thereby creating greater opportunities for social mobility. It is nearly 70 years ago when our founder Christabel Burniston, said: ‘The art of communication through the spoken word has never been of

such vital importance as it is today’. Society and education has changed dramatically and positively in those intervening 70 years, yet communication stills lies at the heart of humanity and progress.”

The Paper’s recommendations are as follows:

The voice of teachers and school leaders in any successful change is central. Therefore, fulsome engagement with teachers, school leaders and their professional associations is key to any outcomes of this APPG being successful. Give teachers permission and direction to have oracy as a central building block of the learning journey, alongside numeracy and literacy, without prescribing a specific ‘way’. Given the centrality of oracy to a learner’s achievement and development, we request that assessment pathways include external assessment of oracy as is present in the assessment of many other parts of the leading journey. Undertake dialogue with those devising the curriculum for teacher training to identify oracy skills for teachers both for their personal development, as well as their professional understanding of the role of oracy in their learners’ personal development and academic achievement. The Department for Education should strengthen the place of communication and language in its strategy to improve social mobility (Bercow: Ten Years On report).

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ESB: What is your current role? SO: I’m the ESOL Course Leader/Curriculum Leader at Gateshead College. ESOL Skills for Life qualifications are designed to assess real-life language skills for work, further learning or everyday life. I have an overview of each level of ESOL Skills for Life qualifications, ranging from Entry 1 to Level 2 but generally, I specialise at Level 1 and 2. ESB: What attracted you to ESOL? SO: I have been involved with ESOL since 2001, so nearly 20 years now. I had just returned from teaching English as a Foreign Language in a high school in Japan to carry out some work at Newcastle University when a friend called me at a time when the ESOL boom was starting in London. So I got on board! It’s been a big journey in terms of the number of nationalities; the official cohort of Bosnian Serbs and Croats after the breakout of the Bosnian War, then the Eastern European block from the Baltic countries and now an increasing number of Spanish and Italians. It has completely changed now.

ESB: Tell us about your Centre, what are your learners like? SO: ESOL is in general a really diverse area. We are trying to create a pathway to long term employability. We have a cohort of students that we take right through the levels who we build great relationships with over the years. There is a big population of Kurdish students in local areas and we also have a large number of Iranians and quite a few Entry 1 Salvadorians. It’s a moving picture in terms of the population base. At Level 2, I am able to see the progression onto other courses whether it be Higher Education or internally. I bumped into an Egyptian student who has just got onto aviation management and often the first step towards that is their first ESB exam. The presentation task in the Level 1 and 2 assessments are a good platform to share cultural experiences and we also try and use the curriculum to empower them through the activities and the methodology that we use.

focus and source of motivation for the learner.

ESB: What are the main challenges you face as ESOL Course Leader? SO : The demand for ESOL courses, particularly entry level is increasing every year, so our biggest challenge as a college is developing our curriculum and a way of working that can best meet our students’ needs while ensuring we continue to give each learner the support and a high quality learning experience. SO: Although students get nervous before an exam, out of all the Boards they find it a very student friendly experience and very encouraging. The students find the Speaking and Listening assessments are well designed. Any learner who hasn’t been successful can generally accept there are areas of weakness to work on. It’s a level playing field. The students enjoy an external exam which is more objective and creates a ESB: How do the learners respond to ESB’s Speaking and Listening assessments?

ESB: Why did you choose ESB’s ESOL Skills for Life qualifications? SO: The College has been using ESB assessments at Entry Level from as early as 2003/2004. The reading and writing assessments are user friendly and are a good model for what the students are going to be used to in future courses. The curriculum is strong and the students respond very positively to it and the exams. ESB has served us well!

Find out more about Gateshead College here: http://www.gateshead.ac.uk/

Explore our ESOL Skills for Life qualifications here: https://esbuk.org/ qualifications/

All of ESB’s Speech and Language Assessors recently attended Annual Training at Warwick University. This training weekend forms an integral part of the organisation’s quality assurance procedures.

Assessors were first trained on ‘My ESB’, in advance of its release, at last year’s Annual Training. Chief Examiner Elaine Rudduck says: “The new system introduced many changes for assessors, head office staff and centres and they have all adapted brilliantly. The time we spent on ‘My ESB’ at last year’s event really paid off.

The standardisation event allows ESB to monitor assessors’ performance ahead of the new academic year. In addition, it gives assessors a great opportunity to feedback their experiences from the 2018-19 academic year.

During this past year, assessors have been adjusting to the organisation’s new booking system ‘My ESB’.

PHOTO— (Top) Tina Renshaw speaks to ESB Assessors

“This year, in addition to standardisation and IT training, we spent time upskilling our assessors. We focused on improvements to our SEND provision and on our new Level 2 (Grade 4) Pathways (more details about this on pages 1 and 2). We are proud of these new developments and we think they will prove popular with centres. It’s important that all our Speech assessors are confident to assess these qualifications and I think everyone left the session feeling very enthusiastic about the potential of these updated qualifications. They will allow learners to develop their oracy skills in a way that suits them, playing to their strengths and interests. “Developing Speech pathways is a good example of where we have listened to what our centres are telling us they would like. All centre feedback is carefully considered by me and by our Senior Examiners Nicola Rose and Lulu Dale. We really welcome this feedback because it keeps us in touch with our centres and ultimately gives us the knowledge to provide the best service we can”.

Following the event, we were delighted to receive lots of lovely written feedback from our assessors which we thought we’d share: -

The training weekend was the best ever. Feeling stimulated, valued and so pleased that the 'SEND' qualifications will be soon under the ESB Speech umbrella.

Thank you so much for the excellent training this weekend. Both enjoyable and informative. Your hard work paid off and is appreciated.

This was my first annual training event, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. It was lovely to hear the three-year vision for ESB from Tina and the training by the team was just FAB. The venue was great, along with the food!

Thank you so much for such a great training event this weekend, the work you did was amazing and the video for the reports was nothing short of genius! Loved it!

Had a really good weekend at @ESBUK Annual standardisation weekend. Congratulations and thank you to all for a superbly planned and run event!

Thank you for such a useful and informative weekend in Warwick. It was really enjoyable to meet with other assessors and the whole weekend was extremely valuable in terms of training .

Plymouth’s Got Talent! And that’s official! One of ESB’s fastest growing centres - Articulacy - is branching out! Based in the southwest of England, Articulacy operates in and around Plymouth and its aims closely match those of ESB’s of promoting excellent oracy skills for all. Articulacy’s mission is to inspire all people regardless of age or abilities to become confident and articulate individuals capable of delivering their messages in all situations both professional and personal, no matter how challenging. Now this successful organisation is developing a sister company called TalkTastic, a not for profit Community Interest Company (CIC) which aims to increase the confidence and communication skills of those who have to fight to be heard. The fledgling CIC recently held its first major project, ‘Plymouth’s Got Talent’, and it was a resounding success.

Funded through Plymouth City Council, the four-week programme helped children entitled to free school meals to develop fundamental skills whilst taking part in enjoyable activities. Through an interactive and varied drama-based approach, participants developed vital skills including communication, teamwork and creativity, culminating in an ESB assessment. Julia Ward, Director of TalkTastic and an ESB Trustee, says, “Plymouth’s Got Talent was designed to empower young people with skills and confidence for future success! The group finished the four weeks with brilliant memories, enhanced skills, new knowledge and increased confidence, together with the added bonus of gaining an ESB Group Speaking qualification. Parents and carers were so impressed with the results that they are requesting the programme return next year. “As a Community Interest Company, we are motivated and driven by our passion for utilising our knowledge to give back to the community and helping those whose voice is not one society is used to listening to. We are a values-based organisation, and we seek to run projects that allow us to achieve goals shaped

by these values, whilst working with collaborators whose drive and vision compliment our own”.

Julia adds: “ESB qualifications are a very important part of TalkTastic’s toolkit. Students are proud to gain a qualification that provides them with valuable skills that will last them a lifetime!”

TalkTastic learners practising ESB with TalkTastic Director and ESB trustee, Julia Ward

Belfast Metropolitan College is Northern Ireland’s largest college, with over 37,000 enrolments. This further education institution offers both vocational education and academic qualifications.

Says Ian, “ESB assessments offer an attainable and realistic training opportunity for young and mature learners, enhancing oracy skills for work and life, employability and independent living. It is incredibly valuable to have an ESB specialist assessor meaningfully evaluating our learner’s curriculum outcomes in a warm and supportive manner. The students really enjoy preparing for their annual assessment visit!”

Ian Patterson, ESB Trustee and Course Co-Ordinator of Adult SEND Provision reports that Belfast Metropolitan College’s “Centre for Supported Learning” has announced that out of its 400 students enrolled in full and part time programmes, over 270 students have enrolled on ESB qualifications this academic year. Learners participate in lively project-based activities which meet ESB requirements for qualifications including ‘Inspiring Confidence in Employability’, ‘Oral Communication in the Community’, ‘Communicating with Art’, ‘Communicating with Others’ and ‘Oral Interview Skills’.

ESB students at Belfast Titanic

Visitor Centre!

Hugely valued by both teaching staff, external agency partners and carers, these assessments provide meaningful learning pathways for Met students.

Senior Examiner, Peter Ellis, often encounters touching moments when he assesses students with a wide range of learning disabilities.

He says: “A recent exam request took me to a south coast town where they have an excellent school for students catering for varying needs and demands. The therapy team has been using our syllabus (special educational needs and disabilities) for many years and regards it highly. “On this particular day, I was assessing a pupil with Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome (PDA), a diagnosis previously unknown to me. The pupil was completing our entry level exam, 'First Steps in Communicating with Others', with the aim of gaining experience in relating to a stranger with all the unpredictability that is inherent in that situation. “To avoid a potential refusal by the pupil to participate, (this being a reaction and not a choice), I entered the room with his therapist under the guise of a visitor between meetings. After a while, I introduced myself, shook hands and proceeded to chat about the pictures. I was thrilled that I was able to generate a positive report and give a grade that the school will be able to build upon. I was also able to award a young woman who had refused to take part in the exams the previous year with a Certificate of Excellence on top of her pass mark.

Peter Ellis, ESB’s Senior Examiner

She not only completed the exam but played a major part in the process by offering information and opinions, asking and answering questions and taking part in the discussion. “Many pupils who take this syllabus have a range of difficulties. They often need careful handling and support to achieve. But, so far, every student I have met as an assessor of this syllabus has worked hard, overcome their nerves and succeeded in an exercise that promotes self-esteem and confidence in addition to all the other learning outcomes that a presentation to a group will have promoted”.

Oral Communication in the Communality Entry 2 students raised money for the SOS Belfast outreach bus and discussed the charity with their assessor, Georgina Marland, in their assessment.

Andrea Bowditch, Literacy Teacher at Newfriars College shares the sentiments of our assessors and congratulates her students on their well-deserved success….

Each and every student who took the exam should be extremely proud of themselves, as I am. They have worked so hard and put the effort in to get fantastic results. Comments from the assessors echoed what we already knew… our students are wonderful young adults who show determination, commitment and give 100% to all that they do. “Student feedback was very positive and all agreed they had developed skills that they could use throughout life. Many of our students will go into employment and having the confidence to deal with an interview situation will be immensely beneficial. ESB is an excellent way for our particular students to build up confidence whilst being able to relate learnt skills to real life.

“Students had been preparing for their June exams since September and before we knew it the day was upon us. Although students were well prepared there were still some expected nerves. However, each and every student managed to impress the examiner with their presenting skills, knowledge and confidence. “Fast forward one week and the results were in, and I’m pleased to say they did not disappoint. Students were graded with either a pass, merit or distinction. All students had passed their exam with flying colours, especially Level 2 students who all achieved a distinction in their exam!“

“Well done everyone, superb achievement!”

We are in the process of improving our Speech products to give you more options and flexibility to meet the needs of the learners with special educational needs and disabilities.

We aim to refresh our portfolio of speech qualifications for learners with special educational needs and disabilities to help those learners achieve their potential. By developing a new suite of multiple-unit products, we can simplify our product offering to centres, while at the same time, giving centres greater choice!”

ESB will be piloting these rebranded Speech products in the New Year.

Says Heather Harewood, ESB’s Product Development Manager: “We are fully committed to stretching the most able and supporting the least confident, and we hope you are as excited about this development as we are.

If you would like to find out more about our Speech products, contact our Product Development team at product@esbuk.org .

Unlock your skills with our Speech portfolio!

Having previously worked in quality assurance within a training centre delivering qualifications for five years, Anna is now maximising her outstanding analytical, investigative and audit skills as our Quality Assurance Manager. Her role involves ensuring that ESB remains compliant with all regulatory requirements as well as the organisation's own high standards through systematic, proactive and risk-based quality assurance .

Liam has shown his adaptability to different roles since starting at ESB as a Communications/HR Assistant. Whilst he still works for the Comms/HR Team, his love for all things digital and his astounding Adobe skills have given him an edge to work on innovative projects, administering a catalogue of online digital resources and providing digital content for the website.

Cassie took her own ESB assessment at an early age! From that promising start, she has continued her ESB journey working within the Product Development Department, gaining a wealth of knowledge and experience of ESB’s educational products and services. She is now eager to use her excellent verbal and non-verbal communication skills in her new role as Communications/HR Officer.

Having worked successfully in our Customer Experience Team for two years, Kirsty now works in our Quality Assurance Department. She uses her superb skills and excellent knowledge of working in a regulatory environment to ensure organisational compliance with all regulatory procedures. She is also a keen musician!

As a graduate from the University of Liverpool with a BA Hons in English Language, Branden’s role is to provide support with the production, development and review of assessments. As part of his role, he has the important task of proofreading all our product related documentation to ensure accuracy and validity.

Effectively administering the customer experience process for our clients, from bookings right through to certification, Lucy and Rebecca both recently joined our Customer Experience Team. Lucy took on her full-time role after working through the summer for ESB as one of our student helpers. She recently finished her music degree at Manchester University. Rebecca joins us from her previous role in banking where she honed her communication skills in customer service for three years.

Nowwe want to hear from you! ‘My ESB’ has completed its �rst six months, and we’d love to know how you think it has performed

Centres

Assessors

Has it met your expectations? Has it improved the way you interact with ESB? Has it been intuitive and easy to use?

Take our survey today! Surveys will be emailed to all centres who have used ‘My ESB’ so far, it will also be available on our website.

esbuk.org

customer@esbuk.org

01695 573439

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