Summer ESB News

I’m delighted to welcome you to this edition of ESB News , keeping you up-to-date with our various projects and giving you the opportunity to hear from some of our valued assessors, centres and learners. Exciting conversations are happening about oracy at the moment. I had the pleasure of attending the recent Westminster conference hosted by Emma Hardy MP. ESB was present as a representative from a key group of oracy and Spoken Language organisations. The purpose of the event was to hear from parliamentarians, young people and organisations about how we achieve a significant focus on oracy as part of progress in social mobility. Two of our ESB graduates Hrishi Venkatesh & Khurram Ishfaq spoke about their journeys. It was fantastic to see a surge of interest around the importance of oracy contributing to achievement for all. Find out more about the conference (p.4). As you are probably aware, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) changes recently came into force, so I thought it important to share with you the steps ESB is taking to ensure we meet the requirements for protecting the personal data and special personal data that we control and process (p.6). I have written to all of our centres and issued new Centre Agreements which outline our responsibilities in relation to this.

I am proud to reintroduce you to one of our key associates ,The Culture Bridge (TCB) and the work it is doing to promote ESBinChina internationally. Find out more about our flourishing relationship with TCB (p.10). After a fantastic celebratory day last year, we are looking forward to our 2018 Young Speakers of the Year Showcase (p.14). Here you can find out how learners are nominated, what to expect on the day and how you can get involved. I am pleased to announce that we will be freezing our centre fees for 2018-2019 at the same rate as last year’s. At ESB we really appreciate people’s loyalties and hope that you choose to stay with us for future bookings. We are always open to feedback, and would love to hear your opinion on what you would like to see in ESB News , so please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Best wishes, Tina

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