Author: Liam Morton

Speech and Language UK’s new report highlights that 1.7 million children are struggling with talking and understanding words in the UK, which is adversely affecting their future personal development and wellbeing.

ESB wholeheartedly supports the report’s recommendations and the charity’s call on the Government to take urgent action so that these children can have their needs identified and met.

“Supporting children with speech and language challenges should be as much of a priority as literacy and numeracy.” (1.7 million Young Futures Report)

Research from Speech and Language UK’s report highlights that if children don’t get help with speech and language, they risk...

• Worse literacy and numeracy
• More mental health problems
• More offending
• Less secure employment
• Low GCSE grades
• Being excluded from school

ESB’s CEO Tina Renshaw, says: “What has always been evident to us at ESB, is the centrality of oracy in achievement – commensurate with literacy and numeracy. They are the building blocks of effective learning, participation, economic achievement and development.”

For nearly 70 years, ESB has been empowering learners to succeed – especially those who face disadvantage – through its accessible portfolio of speech and language qualifications.

ESB is passionate about closing the disadvantage gap and the key points of this new report mirrors ESB’s own findings through its commitment to empowering all learners whatever their background.

Through its Christabel Burniston Fund, ESB is instrumental in opening up a host of opportunities for disadvantaged learners. Financial provision from the Fund, established in honour of ESB’s founder, Christabel Burniston MBE, is allowing learners who face disadvantage due to socio-economic factors, special educational needs and disabilities, and/or migration status, to access its qualifications and, in turn, develop the key speaking and listening skills they need to achieve their aspirations.

Says Tina: “Giving learners the tools to thrive in education, training and employment has always been at the forefront of ESB’s work and we recognise that by giving free training for staff and offering a reduction in assessment fees to those in need, opens more doors for all.  In order to evidence the benefits of this funding, ESB is currently undertaking a project to provide individual impact report to funded centres to allow them, and us, to fully understand the benefits to their learners. Each report highlights the extent to which a focus on oracy using external assessment has a quantifiable impact on learners’ knowledge, skills and personal and social development.”

The reports use data provided by schools and learners such as:

• Learner Pre and Post Assessment Data
• Teacher Baseline Assessment Data
• Qualitative Data collected from questionnaires.

Adds Tina: “The individual reports are incredibly useful and we are in the process of producing an Annual National Report on ESB’s impact on closing the disadvantage gap, using the data and information gathered”.

You can read Speech and Language UK’s new report: 1.7 million young futures here.

If you believe your learners or young people would benefit from ESB’s speech and English language qualifications, we would love to hear from you. Please get in touch to find out whether your centre is eligible for financial support through our Christabel Burniston Fund by emailing business@esbuk.org.

ESB assessor Lulu Dale led a number of oracy workshops at the WayWord Festival held at Chester’s Storyhouse Theatre, this October half-term.

Celebrating the power of words, the WayWord Festival is designed for young people, offering them an exciting and inspiring programme of events and activities to fire up their imagination. 

Key speakers at the festival included famous poets, Benjamin Zephaniah (pictured with Lulu Dale below), Dame Jacqueline Wilson, Julian Clary and Nick Sharratt.

Lulu, together with curriculum expert, Tara Jones, encouraged learners’ confidence in communication and fostered creativity during the interactive sessions.

The young people were given the opportunity to take to the stage and share in speaking and listening with others in small groups. 

Parents also had the opportunity to talk with Lulu and Tara as they explained the importance of modelling and teaching spoken language and listening skills.

One learner, Alex said: “The workshop helped me to express my mind!”, with another parent, Jade Palmer adding, “The workshop was absolutely fantastic. We were so impressed with Lulu!”

Famous poet, activist, novelist, actor and broadcaster, Benjamin Zephaniah, says about Storyhouse: “I wish I had something like this when I was growing up”.

Lulu adds, “I thoroughly enjoyed leading the fun, interactive sessions and witnessing the huge impact they had on these young people’s oracy skills. With the same goal as ESB assessments, the workshops provided children with a platform and opportunity to speak about what matters the most to them and listen to other members of the group.

“Similar to the workshops, the majority of ESB’s Speech assessments are carried out in groups where learners are assessed individually – replicating real life opportunities for speaking and listening. At ESB, we understand the importance of possessing key communication skills and we’re here to support our learners to develop them. What a fantastic day!”

ESB offers a full range of accredited oracy qualifications, recognised and mapped to the relevant common curriculum requirements. Find out more about our speech qualifications here.

If you believe your learners or young people would benefit from ESB qualifications, we would love to hear from you. Please get in touch to find out whether your centre is eligible for financial support through our 70/70 campaign by emailing business@esbuk.org.

ESB is thrilled to launch our ‘Your Milestone’ Competition!

What better way to celebrate our own special milestone –70th anniversary in 2023 – than by giving our learners the opportunity to showcase their skills and talent.

The competition is open to all Speech and ESOL learners and we encourage them to enter and to get involved. It is not necessary for learners to have completed their assessment prior to entering.

Learners will simply need to create and video themselves delivering their spoken piece (in the form of a speech/poem/rap/piece of drama/story) about an important milestone in their life. The spoken piece should last no longer than 3 minutes.

Learners can submit their video entries from one of the following six categories:

1. Speech (KS1&2)
2. Speech (KS3)
3. Speech (KS4&5)
4. Speech SEND
5. ESOL Entry Level
6. ESOL Level 1 & 2

In addition to sharing and marketing your centres’ achievements on our digital networks, we will also be awarding a £50.00 voucher for 1st prize winners and a £25.00 voucher for 2nd prize winners within each category. All learners who receive a Highly Commended Award will also receive a certificate highlighting their accomplishment.

Centres whose learners are awarded the first prize will also have the additional bonus of receiving a £40.00 voucher. 

Why enter?
The competition will:

• Be a great way to gain recognition and social media exposure for your centre as we will be featuring winners’ videos across all our media channels, including our Website, Twitter and LinkedIn.  
• Hone your learners’ communication skills in a fun and competitive environment.
• Motivate learners and your centre and improve their confidence.
• Give learners the opportunity to enhance their public speaking skills, helping them to excel both within and out of school, giving them a sense of self pride.
• Enable learners to reflect on their achievements to date – promoting positivity and wellbeing.

How to enter?

Please send in your video (taken on a mobile phone is perfectly acceptable) together with your Application Form to ESB’s Communications Officer, Cassie Anderson at cassie.anderson@esbuk.org.

Speech Application Form: please click here to download.
ESOL Application form: please click here to download.

The closing date for submission of entries is Friday 27th January 2023.

Please feel free to download, share and print the poster and display around your centre for all learners to see!

ESB is determined to provide continual support to teachers, helping them to fulfil the potential of all their learners. With this in mind, we are delighted to launch brand new resource packs for the following qualifications:

• ESB Entry Level Awards in Speech (Entry 1, 2 and 3)

• ESB Level 3 Certificate in Speech (Grade 8)

ESB’s new speech resources are designed to provide new and existing centres with ready to use lessons and activities to support teachers and learners along their ESB oracy journey.

We hope these resources will allow new centres to access our qualifications more readily by reducing the workload for centre staff, and by providing clarity on the objectives and criteria in the qualifications.

For our existing centres, who are already experienced and skilled in preparing their learners for ESB qualifications, we hope that these new resources will be a great way to reinforce the great work you already do. The resources cover all four sections of the assessments and aim to address some of the common questions that even our most experienced centres sometimes have.

Finally, we know that when staff move to new positions and pass on responsibility for teaching ESB qualifications, or centre organisers change, it can be challenging to get to grips with a whole new set of specifications. By providing these resources, we hope to ease these transitions.

We are working towards having resources available for all of our speech qualifications. Watch this space!

You can access our Building Confidence in Communication Teacher Resources and other speech resources here.