ESB is thrilled to announce that it has been shortlisted for Awarding Organisation of the Year at the FAB 2023 Awards.

The FAB (Federation of Awarding Bodies) Awards recognise the contributions made by awarding organisations and their employees to education and skills in the UK over the past year.

ESB’s nomination highlighted its many accomplishments in a particular special year – as in 2023 it celebrated its 70^th anniversary. These included overcoming barriers and challenges, improving social mobility, impacting the lives of centres and learners, demonstrating innovation and leadership, and excellence in its field.

ESB’s Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw, says:

I’ve led ESB International for a tenth of our story and I am part of a professional, purpose led Awarding Organisation that never fails to make me know why I get out of bed! In our 70th year we are of a view that what we’ve achieved has earned this shortlisting. I lead a team that lives its learner centred culture, that drives change and delivers to our most disadvantaged adults, children and young people  – we really do want our qualifications to help fulfil the potential of all.

For 70 years, ESB has been providing children, young people and adults with the opportunity to find their voice, advocate for their lives and communities. The organisation also offers those coming and choosing to live in our country a pathway to be heard in their new communities as well as those learners living internationally and in the UK an opportunity to boost their employability and portability of their skills across the world.

ESB does this through its specialist Oracy and English language qualifications, certificating nearly 40,000 learners this year. From our specialist portfolio of Oracy qualifications for learners with significant learning needs; to our Oracy qualifications from Early Years to Post 16 offering high levels of UCAS points for those considering a university pathway; to our ESOL Skills for Life and ESOL International qualifications. In addition to our qualifications which boost skills, confidence, self-respect and knowledge, resource-stretched schools and colleges value the accredited outcome of the ESB external assessment experience.

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2023 has seen ESB launch several initiatives demonstrating its commitment to outreach and its purpose – to stretch the most able, support the least confident and realise the potential of all learners.

Outreach Campaign

ESB’s 70/70 outreach campaign was launched to provide financial aid to organisations, both in the education and third sector, to enable learners who face disadvantage due to socio-economic factors, significant learning needs or migrant status to access ESB’s life-changing Oracy or English language qualifications.

Since 2020, ESB’s outreach work has committed £45,000 to support its organisations, and in 2023, it will have committed £30,000 throughout the year. By 2027, ESB wants to double the scale of its outreach programme and reach even more learners facing disadvantage.

Tina says, “To strengthen our outreach work, we’re now searching for new patrons who can raise awareness, attract donors and philanthropists, and help us to expand our reach even further.”

Please watch the video below to learn more about ESB’s incredible work and this exciting initiative.

National Impact Report

ESB published its first National Impact Report, outlining the impact of its externally assessed qualifications on the development of learners’ oracy and personal development. This research, from some of our most disadvantaged primary and secondary schools, demonstrates an impact score of 9/10 and 8/10 respectively, that ESB qualifications have a significant impact on the Oracy skills of their learners in the wake of the pandemic. Please watch the video to learn more about ESB’s National Impact Report. You can also download the Executive Summary of the report here.

ESB also had a peer-reviewed article published in the Chartered Teaching Magazine: ‘A unique opportunity in the curriculum for students to have genuine agency over their choices and outcome’: A study of the impact on learners of employability-focused, externally assessed Level 1 and Level 2 speaking and listening qualifications.

Multimedia 70th Birthday events

ESB has held five multimedia events this year to celebrate its many learners, teachers, assessors, trustees, and staff. You can watch the highlight video of these events here.

Tina adds:

It is a huge honour to have our hard work and dedication acknowledged in such a significant way. We are very proud to be among the few who have been selected and we look forward to the upcoming Awards Ceremony.

The FAB 2023 Awards ceremony is being held on 30th November at the Marriott Hotel in Leicester.

If you are interested in discussing our Oracy and/or English language qualifications and wish to find out if your centre qualifies for financial support through our Outreach programme, we would love to hear from you. Please email business@esbuk.org or call 01695 573439 extension 201.

ESB was delighted to participate and showcase the impact of its externally assessed oracy qualifications at the Great Oracy Exhibition, hosted by Voice 21 in Manchester this week.

The event provided an opportunity for ESB to demonstrate its commitment to oracy education and connect with other like-minded educators in the field.

ESB’s Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw, says:

It was an honour for us to attend the Great Oracy Exhibition. We had a wonderful time discussing the impact of our externally assessed oracy qualifications and the significance of such qualifications in boosting learners’ potential and equipping them with lifelong skills.

The headline Sponsor ‘Poetry by Heart’  led a great opening session and we look forward to exploring ideas of how we can support each other’s work in the future.

Communication-rich experiences are key to helping children, young people and adults find their voice, developing confidence, self-esteem and self-respect. Human connection, individual agency, group work, and confidence are all central to the ESB assessment experience.

It was fantastic to engage with other educators and thought leaders in the Oracy field. Voice 21 has created an important and vital Oracy movement which lifts all of us up who work in the Oracy space. We spoke to over 100 teachers and look forward to continuing many of those conversations.

Also in attendance was Becky Bainbridge, a plenary panel member and CEO of one of ESB’s current centres, RECLAIM, a youth leadership and social change organisation based in Manchester.

Becky commented: “Arrived for my panel discussion at the Great Oracy Exhibition and absolutely thrilled to see our friends, ESB here!”

ESB and RECLAIM’s work together commenced in 2019, with its young learners completing ESB’s Speech Pathways qualification, ‘Speech to Inform’. Learn more about the impact of our oracy qualifications on RECLAIM’s young people here.

Tina adds: “Overall, the event was a huge success, and excellently planned. We look forward to participating in further similar events in the future to promote the cause of oracy.”

ESB offers a wide-ranging portfolio of confidence-building oracy qualifications from Early Years to KS5 and post 16 mapped to national curriculum standards.

Why ESB qualifications?

• A specialist awarding organisation with over 70 years of expertise in creating, assessing, and awarding qualifications for Oracy
• External assessment model with professional assessors
• Enables learners to gain 30 UCAS points at KS5
• Financial support available for schools in areas of disadvantage or with above average levels of pupil premium or those offering specialist SEND provision.

If you are interested in finding out more about ESB’s oracy qualifications and whether your organisation is eligible for financial support, please contact our Business Development Team at business@esbuk.org. We would love to hear from you.

ESB International is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year and to mark the occasion it is looking to bring on board new Patrons to strengthen the organisation.

The organisation has approached a number of individuals who staff feel would contribute positively to ESB’s Outreach Campaign, an important part of its ethos.

The outreach work financially supports organisations and groups whose learners face disadvantage due to poverty, migrant or asylum seeker status, or special educational needs and disabilities.

The new patrons will play a crucial role in raising our profile to attract more organisations to access ESB’s Ofqual-accredited confidence-boosting English language and Oracy qualifications.

ESB’s Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw says:

We are delighted to be seeking new patrons to help us to expand our financial reach to even more disadvantaged groups. Our staff have nominated individuals whom they admire and who demonstrate and champion Oracy or English as an additional language and have a personal or professional connection to the causes of disadvantage that most impact on the development of these skills.

To learn more about ESB’s incredible work and this exciting initiative, please watch the video below.

Tina adds:

We would like our new patrons to raise our profile and so help us attract donors and philanthropists to grow what we do with our outreach programme.

Since 2020, we have committed £45,000 to support our organisations and we continue to focus on, and support, the areas of most disadvantage. In 2023, we will have committed £30,000 in one year.

We would like to do more, and so our patrons will help us have a bigger profile which we believe will help us secure external funding to double the scale of this work.

ESB is excited to welcome new patrons on its journey to help close the disadvantage gap and to be part of its inspiring story.

If you are interested in speaking to our team about our Oracy and/or English language qualifications or if your centre qualifies for financial support through our Outreach Programme, we would love to hear from you. Please email business@esbuk.org or call 01695 573439 extension 201.

ESB updates and improves its ESOL Skills for Life qualification specifications and assessment papers in response to a report published by Ofqual: Understanding ESOL Skills for Life qualifications.

You can view and download our updated specifications here:

• Entry 1
• Entry 2
• Entry 3
• Level 1
• Level 2

The updates include the removal of true/false and yes/no questions from ESB’s ESOL Skills for Life Reading papers at all levels. Reading is still assessed with multiple-choice, matching, short-answer, and gap-fill questions, and all other aspects of the assessments are unchanged.

In addition, to keep our assessments relevant and authentic, the tasks in ESB’s ESOL Skills for Life Writing papers (E1-L2) will no longer include postcards, letters or stories.

The new specifications contain additional detail on the content of the qualifications and how they are assessed, and are an invaluable reference tool for teachers and tutors.

We are committed to providing the best possible ESOL Skills for Life qualifications for our centres and their learners. The updates to the specifications and assessment papers are a result of our commitment to continuous improvement and ensure that our qualifications meet the highest standards and remain relevant, motivating and accessible to all our learners.

ESB’s Product Development Manager, Anthea Wilson

The purpose of Ofqual’s research was to understand how effective the current regulatory requirements are for ESOL Skills for Life qualifications in terms of their design, assessment, alignment, comparability, and validity.

ESB was one of the six Awarding Organisations that participated in the research and submitted feedback.

If you have any queries regarding the above, please contact us at product@esbuk.org