Welcome to the UK Dissemination Event Year 3

“Thanks very much for an informative event. It’s so encouraging to have good news about ESOL”
“Really exciting to see how the project has developed over the last 3 years”
“Some great ideas to take back to the college, to colleagues and to the classroom”
“Great to hear about the success and future developments of the project, plus opportunity to network”
“Very interesting and inspiring – great to bring the actual learners”

Over 70 people gathered at Avonmouth House on Friday 7th June to attend the final dissemination event for the EIF funded Welcome to the UK project, celebrating not just the work of the third and final year of the project, but the life of the project as a whole. Project manager Karen Dudley and project co-ordinator Judy Kirsh opened proceedings with an overview of the Welcome to the UK project and the impact that it has had on its participants, leading into a very well received segment where project learners, befrienders, volunteers and teachers spoke about the experiences as part of the project both in the UK and in Bangladesh. The presentation can be downloaded here.

“Really appreciated presence of learners, befrienders and volunteers”
“Thoroughly enjoyable”

Ann Robertson from the Home Office then gave an overview of the reforms to the Knowledge of language and life requirement for settlement and naturalisation, followed by a European Integration and Refugee funding update from Catherine Parker and Amanda Sharpley of the Home Office EU funding team. Read the presentation here.

Delegates were then able to select from a range of workshops, covering areas of experience from project staff and partner organisations.

“Workshops were inspirational”
“At last, an opportunity for volunteers to be offered training in a very challenging area where there are very very few ready-made resources available”

 Welcome to the UK- one EIF project’s approaches to supporting integration. Project Manager Karen Dudley led an overview of the Welcome to the UK project, focusing on the different ways in which integration was supported through links with key local agencies and organisations and looking at the resources and toolkits that have been developed to help providers working with both adult ESOL participants planning to settle in the UK and those recently arrived. You can read the presentation here.

“Will use in planning my courses and engaging organisations when creating/planning half-term workshops”
“Good to find out about the wonderful materials – will use and try [them] out, and adapt them”
“Useful materials in Welcome to the UK toolkit and flash cards can be used in ESOL classes”

The Most Significant Change: using participatory video and storytelling for evaluation. Becky Savage from InsightShare and Welcome to the UK project co-ordinator Judy Kirsh talked about how a participatory video process was used with ‘the Most Significant Change’ technique to gather stories of participants’ experiences in the Welcome to the UK project, as well as screening some of the film footage that was created this year. The presentation can be read by visiting this link.

“Very much learner-centred and great example of empowerment”
“Lots of potential to use this in my work”
“Made it seem much more accessible”

ESOL Nexus – English in my home with Amanda WIlson from the British Council. The latest resources on the ESOL Nexus website help learners to develop the English language skills they may need to interact effectively in the UK. The workshop focused on the work of developing video footage using actors and green screen techniques; discuss some of the issues when scripting the videos and show how self-access activities for learners and resources for teachers were developed.

“ESOL Nexus site is very useful – I use it in my lessons”
“Got further ideas on how to use the website”

   

Befriending: Lessons learned with Foufou Savitzky (befriender trainer) and Sallyann Freer (befriender co-ordinator) A frank appraisal of the Befriender programme of the Welcome to the UK project, this workshop looked all aspects of the process from recruitment to the ongoing support, acknowledging the challenges as well as the considerable successes

“Useful to hear about volunteer befriending schemes”
“Workshop was great, with a great presenter”
“Will look at a befriending scheme”

Teaching Basic Literacy to ESOL Learners taster with Judy Kirsh and John Sutter, Learning Unlimited. This very well-attended workshop offered a short introduction into the nationally acclaimed Teaching Basic Literacy to ESOL (TBLEL) course, outlining the full course content and giving a taste of the kind of activities that can be used with ESOL learners who have basic literacy needs.

“Very practical, excellent exercises, well delivered”
“Given me lots of ideas how to teach literacy”

If you would like to register your interest in any future Teaching Basic Literacy to ESOL Learners courses, then please email [email protected]