A message from our Chief Executive

Dear Centres,

Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed your summer break and are ready for an exciting and successful year ahead.

ESB’s commitment to empower all learners – especially those individuals who need it the most – to develop the key speaking and listening skills they need to achieve their aspirations, is at the forefront of our work.

To ensure that our assessments remain accessible and beneficial to your learners, I would like to include you in some of the exciting initiatives that we have been busy working on.

New and improved resources

ESB is determined to provide continual support to teachers, helping them to fulfil the potential of all their learners.

With this in mind, we will shortly be launching new speech resources including ready-to-teach PowerPoints with accompanying Learner Workbooks for the following qualifications:

1. ESB Entry Level Awards in Speech (Entry 1, 2 and 3)
2. ESB Level 3 Certificate in Speech (Grade 8)

We will also be refreshing and improving our resources for our Speech Pathways qualifications to make them more accessible to centres.

Gap Analysis Tool

We are delighted to let you know that we are in the process of designing a tool to enable centres to identify where they already cover the skills required to succeed in our Speech qualifications, (and to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum where they are linked to our Speech qualifications), and then to identify where they could create further opportunities to embed them. 

We are particularly excited about the chance for this tool to be used to explore where our qualifications can fit into subject areas outside of English and Drama.

ESB’s impact on closing the disadvantage gap reports

This half term, centres who receive funding through ESB’s Christabel Burniston Fund, will have access to an individual impact report on how ESB qualifications are helping them to close the disadvantage gap experienced by their learners. The reports will highlight 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 will use data provided by schools and learners such as:

• Learner Pre and Post Assessment Data

• Teacher Baseline Assessment Data

• Qualitative Data collected from questionnaires.

*An Annual national report on ESB’s impact on closing the disadvantage gap is also coming later this term so keep an eye out for this!

It’s time to celebrate – 2023 marks the 70^th Anniversary of ESB!

As we approach ESB’s 70th anniversary in 2023, we are thrilled to reveal that we are currently in the initial stages of planning events and activities to celebrate this special milestone.

The celebratory events will provide a fantastic opportunity for all members of the ESB family – both past and present learners, centres, assessors, and staff – to all get together and recognise their achievements, and to share their memories of their ESB experience.

We would love to include you in our celebrations. Please keep an eye out for more information about these events over the next few months.

Launch of ‘Your Milestone’ Competition

Break the ice with your new September intake by encouraging them to take part in ESB’s ‘Your Milestone’ Competition!

Designed to hone your learners’ communication skills in a fun environment, learners will have the opportunity to showcase their skills and talent by creating and delivering a spoken piece (in the form of a speech/poem/rap/piece of drama/story) about an important milestone in their life.

Full details on how to enter will be released shortly. If you have any questions about this in the meantime, please email ESB’s Communications Officer, Cassie Anderson, at cassie.anderson@esbuk.org.

And finally, we are always looking at ways to support you whilst you embark on your ESB oracy and English language journeys. We give financial support to organisations where children, young people and/or adults face disadvantage and enable them access to our assessments. We try and keep the cost of our assessments at a reasonable price and we will never turn a centre away who can’t afford them. We encourage you to get in touch today and find out whether your centre is eligible for funding through the Christabel Burniston Fund.

If you have any questions about how to book your assessments, please click here or speak to a member of our Customer Experience team at customer@esbuk.org.

Together, we can continue to raise the achievement of our learners.

Best wishes,

Tina Renshaw,
Chief Executive of ESB International

We want to give you and your learners a heads up by providing some key information about ESB’s Your Milestone Competition before you break for summer.

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

Designed to hone your learners’ communication skills in a fun and competitive environment, September 2022 will see the launch of ESB’s Your Milestone Competition.

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 assessments prior to entering.

Learners will simply need to create and deliver a spoken piece (in the form of a speech/poem/rap/piece of drama/story) about an important milestone in their life. This could be a particular achievement they are proud of, a time they used their voice to make a positive impact, or starting life in a new place. The spoken piece should last no longer than 3 minutes.

Learners can submit their entry 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

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.  

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 £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. 

The winning entry will be assessed on the delivery and presentation, and will be the one that reaches the heart of the listener the most. We are looking for that little bit of magic!

All learners can put their thinking hats on over the Summer and what better way to break the ice with your new intake in September.

Full details on how to enter will be released early September. Watch this space!

Staff at ESB’s Head Office enjoyed meeting with learners on a recent visit to one of its valued ESOL Skills for Life centres in London – the Blackfriars Settlement.

Cassie Anderson, ESB’s Communications Officer and Liam Morton, ESB’s Digital Content and Learning Resources Officer went along to the centre to see first-hand learners in action! The ESOL learners at the centre were eager to talk about their experiences, highlighting the huge importance that they place on developing their English language skills. They wanted to improve their communication in their daily lives and also boost their progression and employability.

Read about what some of our Level 2 learners had to say about ESB assessments:

“It was a challenge but it helped me improve a lot. I really liked the assessments. I’m looking to do many things in the future so I must have good English (writing, reading, and speaking skills). I want to grow my business so ESB will help me to do it online and speak to people in English.”

“Before I joined this class I was a little bit scared to talk with people but after joining, I am very confident and can talk with anyone now. I can talk over the phone, which I could not do before. If anything happens in my house, I can call the correct person and talk over the phone.”

“I really liked the role play section. I like to talk so it helped to improve my English.”

Our speaking assessments are conducted face-to-face in pairs with ESB-trained assessors encouraging authentic and meaningful communication. Other learners demonstrated how they benefitted from completing their assessment in this way by commenting:

“It helps a lot because you both have different ideas and you get to learn new things. It was easier because you know the person.”

“It was very reassuring to have someone from your class with you. It was great.”

“I liked the speaking exam because it helped give me a chance to speak and exchange ideas. I want to improve my English and learn more to socialise within the English community. I want to improve it to do what I want to do. The assessor wanted to know a lot about me and my country of origin and she taught me about London.”

“I am here to learn English very well and I like the ESB exam. I need to be able to talk with people and visit different countries.”

ESB’s Communications Officer, Cassie Anderson also spoke to ESB Organiser, Kirsty Barlow – the Essential Skills Curriculum Manager at the Centre.

ESB: What do you feel are the benefits of ESB assessments to your learners?

KB: I see our students hugely benefitting all the time, They tell us this, right from Entry 1 classes all the way through to Level 2. We can see that they are making great improvements to their English language skills and the people around them notice too. In fact, just this week, someone told me that their manager at work had said just how much they’ve improved their language skills since coming to classes. We know that some ESB learners have gone onto university following their ESB assessments. We see students coming back year after year making their way through all of the ESB assessment levels (Entry 1 – Level 2).  

ESB: Why did you choose ESB assessments?

KB: What really attracted me to ESB was that all the assessments are externally set and marked – therefore, we know that students are passing to a standard. I think that this is great for the students, as they have something meaningful from all their hard work.   

ESB: What are the main disadvantages your learners face?

KB: Unfortunately, learners cannot use a lot of their skills because their language is limited. ESB allows them to progress their English skills and that starts moving them towards something that they really want to do and are passionate about.

ESB: What do you think is ESB’s USP?

KB: ESB Speaking and Listening assessments give a good balance between things that students can prepare and work towards, and the unknown. It really is a complete test of their whole range of language. Every assessment that I have seen is spot on for the right level – and therefore, is right for our students.

ESB Teacher, Louisa, adds:

It gives them a goal. It give them something to work towards which is always good. At Level 2, they have a vested interest because some are going on to further study but most of them are going on to work, so the learners see it as very meaningful. ESB is definitely a confidence builder and it is not too difficult to prepare for.

ESB’s Communications Officer, Cassie Anderson, says:

We had a fantastic day and we are so grateful for our warm welcome! All learners and staff had very positive things to say about ESB assessments. It was apparent that learners attach great significance to developing their English language skills – to integrate into the community, workplace, and further study.

By giving learners the ability to develop these communicative skills, ESB enables them to be well-equipped with essential life skills and confidence needed to communicate worldwide. 

If you have been inspired to take our ESOL Skills for Life qualifications, we would love to hear from you. To find out more about our ESOL Skills for Life qualifications, please click here.