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.
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
Speech and Language UK has recently published a report which highlights the significant rise in children struggling with talking and understanding words.
English Speaking Board (International) wholeheartedly supports the report’s recommendations and the charity’s call on the Government and the education system to take urgent action so that these children have the skills they need to face the future with confidence.
ESB knows the impact when young people and adults don’t have the speaking and listening skills needed to thrive in their lives.
Ineffective communication and poor oracy skills can significantly impact an individual’s learning, life and work.
Communication-rich experiences are key to helping children, young people and adults find their voice; developing confidence, self-esteem and self-respect. The pandemic adversely impacted these experiences for those children already living with socio economic disadvantage.
Acquiring good levels of Oracy are further challenged by disadvantage – socio-economic, special educational needs and disabilities and people whose first language isn’t English. Sadly these often act as barriers to educational attainment and aspirations.
These are the problems that ESB wants to address.
Says ESB’s Chief Executive, “Finding your voice is absolutely central to who we are as human beings. Many young people and adults are eager to reach their full potential, but the education system can be a barrier for those with additional or significant learning needs. That’s where ESB comes in. Our empowering, confidence-boosting oracy qualifications help prepare individuals for success in both their personal and professional lives.”
ESB is committed to helping close the disadvantage gap and the key points of this new report mirror ESB’s purpose to empower all learners to develop key oracy skills, regardless of their background.
Adds Tina, “We reach out to children and young adults who may be affected by poverty, difficult socio-economic conditions, special educational needs and disabilities, and we offer them that unique opportunity to focus on oracy through our Ofqual Accredited qualifications.
“Through our Outreach Campaign, we provide financial support through our Christabel Burniston Fund to schools in areas of disadvantage, as well as schools offering specialist SEND provision.”
What is the impact of investing in ESB qualifications that focus on oracy?
ESB’s recently launched National Impact Report outlines the impact of its externally assessed qualifications on the development of learners’ oracy and personal development.
Impact at Primary Level
Teachers told us that:
ESB qualifications have had a huge impact on the speaking and listening skills of their learners in the wake of the pandemic, with a 9/10 impact score.
Learners spoke with an increasing command of standard English.
Learners were judged to be far more competent and confident in their ability to gain and maintain the interest of their peers and to stay on topic, initiate and respond.
Learners improved their group work skills.
Learners also said that they were much happier to read in class after they had completed the assessment.
Impact at Secondary Level
62% of learners told us that the qualifications improved their ability to work well in a group and helped them to stay focused and to collaborate with others.
Teachers said that the impact of completing these qualifications in a post-pandemic world was of significance for these young people, with an 8/10 impact score.
Learners also felt they improved their ability to speak confidently, audibly and fluently, enhanced their vocabulary to articulate better, and improved their own abilities and targets.
ESB understands that investing in oracy has its dividends and has both an immediate and life-long impact on learners.
Tina says, “It is ESB’s goal to expand our reach to more organisations where learners face disadvantage. By developing speaking and listening skills, we stretch the most able, support the least confident and realise the potential of all, to help close the disadvantage gap.”
If you are interested in speaking to our team about Oracy 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.
You can read Speech and Language UK’s full report here.
English Speaking Board (International) Ltd, a specialist Awarding Organisation offering Oracy and English Language qualifications, and also a member of the Oracy Network, is delighted that the subject of Oracy in schools is high on the political agenda.
In an article published in The Times, Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to prioritise oracy as a key aspect of the Labour Party’s education mission.
The Times Education Editor, Nicola Woolcock says, “Speaking fluently and clearly will be put at the heart of the national curriculum and given the same status as literacy and numeracy under a Labour government, Sir Keir Starmer has pledged. “The ability to articulate ideas is key to “getting on and thriving in life”, Starmer says, arguing that children with poor language skills at the age of five are six times less likely to reach the expected standard of English at 11.”
Says ESB’s Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw, “It’s fantastic to see that oracy is being recognised as a priority in education. As a member of the Oracy Network, the group supporting the work of the Oracy APPG chaired by Emma Hardy MP for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, ESB has been successfully offering oracy qualifications to learners for 70 years and knows its impact as a valid pathway to promote oracy in schools. We certificate more than 60,000 learners per year and regularly rank amongst the Top 50 UK-based Awarding Organisations offering vocational qualifications.”
Research from Sutton Trust in February 2019, for the APPG for Social Mobility, found that from the age of five, the UK’s most disadvantaged children can be 19 months behind their more affluent peers in vocabulary development, and this deficit can have life-long consequences. By not developing our children’s language and communication skills from the earliest opportunity, we are limiting our workforce and the economy. The report states: ‘Children with poor vocabulary aged five are more than twice as likely to be unemployed aged 34’.”
Tina adds, “Clarity of communication and an ability to express thoughts simply, sincerely and persuasively, are qualities needed by everyone in this specialised, competitive world. For whatever the industrial, professional or social responsibilities are, every individual will have to inform, instruct, listen, explain, question, interpret, disagree and advise. ESB’s assessment framework can act as a scaffolding tool for embedding Oracy into a school curriculum”.
ESB Honorary President, Merriel Halsall-William’s amazing work on Oracy is recognised in the comments section of The Times article:
“I was lucky enough to be taught public speaking while at school, a skill which has served me well throughout my career. Having seen Managers crumble when required to address a room full of staff, shaking like a leaf, I can only consider myself extremely grateful for the skills I was given in my youth. Thanks Ms. Halsall-Williams.”
Chair of Trustees, Pippa Quarrell, further adds:
“Wonderful to see reference to the work of the amazing Merriel Halsall-Williams. She’s devoted her career to this cause by preparing her pupils for Speaking and Listening assessments provided by a brilliant organisation set up exactly 70 years ago by another legend in this area, Christabel Burniston. The Oracy qualifications offered by English Speaking Board are a golden ticket to social mobility and lifelong success.”
Tina says, “For the last 70 years, we have witnessed the immediate and life-long impact of our Oracy qualifications on the progression of learners’ oracy and personal development but now we have data to prove in our National Impact Report.”
ESB’s commitment to supporting disadvantaged learners is demonstrated by its 70/70 Outreach Campaign. Steadfast in its determination to reduce the impacts of disadvantage on communication and oracy skills, ESB has already committed £40,000 to financially support organisations where its learners face disadvantage due to socio-economic, special educational needs and disabilities and migration status, enabling them access to its qualifications.
Adds ESB’s Chief Executive Tina, “Our goal is to expand our reach to more organisations where learners face disadvantage. We will continue our efforts to narrow the impact of the disadvantage gap by working with these organisations on Oracy and English Language.”
If you are interested in speaking to our team about ESB’s Speech qualification suite or if your centre qualifies for 70/70 funding, we would love to hear from you. Please email business@esbuk.org or call 01695 573439 extension 201.