ESB wholeheartedly supports this initiative and congratulates all involved.Our 12,000 learners who annually achieve an ESB speech qualification are asked to select a favourite book and prepare an excerpt to read, as part of their assessment as demonstrated below.
Books open up new worlds, experiences and perspectives, as well as develop our vocabulary. As we ask our learners to read out loud from a favourite book and introduce why they chose it, ESB International also encourages the development of confidence in reading aloud, clear and audible speech, vocal variety, vocabulary, word sounds and blending and hopefully a pleasure in reading.
If any schools would like to know more about our Speech qualifications and talk to one of our team please contact us on findoutmoreaboutESB@esbuk.org.
I know that this year will continue with challenges and I wanted to let you know that we are open for business, including taking new bookings and supporting you with any queries you might have. I was in direct contact with a number of you over the summer term as were many of our team. You told us you really appreciated our personal contact and our straightforward processes in difficult times.
For those who were involved in certificating learners in the spring and summer as part of Ofqual’s Extraordinary Regulatory Framework (ERF), I am sure you will agree, it was a great success (as you can see from these learners below taking their ESB assessments during lockdown). We managed to award almost 10,000 certificates to our learners, so they have the opportunity to progress their oracy and English language skills in this new academic year.
As you may know Ofqual are currently consulting on an Extended Extraordinary Regulatory Framework (EERF), with the outcomes due to be published imminently. The focus of the EERF is to allow assessments to take place in circumstances where ‘normal’ assessment protocols cannot be implemented due to social distancing restrictions, for example, or if there was a local lockdown. This means that you can make assessment bookings with confidence that they will be able to take place. Some of our learners used an adaptation model for their assessments in the summer term so we are well placed and practised to manage any adaptations that we may need this academic year.
If you would like to discuss these proposals in more detail, please contact the Product Development team at product@esbuk.org. otherwise do please book as usual and communicate with our team if your centre has any restrictions that we need to manage with you to ensure your learners have their assessment.
Tina Renshaw Chief Executive English Speaking Board (International) Ltd.
One of English Speaking Board’s longest-standing assessors Joan Blackham has sadly passed away.
Away from ESB, Joan was an experienced character actress working in film, television and theatre alongside household names like John Thaw, Patricia Hodge, Jemma Redgrave and Kenneth Williams. She starred in the original West End production of Calendar Girls and as Eleanor Roosevelt in the film Battle for Sevastopol. She also featured in the hit movie Bridget Jones’s Diary, as well as many, many popular TV series.
When she wasn’t on stage or in front of the camera, Joan’s other great love was being an ESB assessor. She specialised in assessing learners with Special Educational Needs and was recognised as a true professional.
Joan’s ESB colleague and friend Bunty Gulliford recalls:
Joan was born in Wolverhampton in 1946, and later in life became involved with ESB as an assessor. All who worked with her knew what a very dedicated and professional assessor she was. She loved the work and didn’t want to commit herself to any other form of assessing. She was a feisty lady with a heart of gold.
Her brilliant affinity with learners was very much in evidence just last March when she assessed at a long-standing ESB centre, Foxes Academy, in the seaside town of Minehead. Foxes is an incredibly special place which aims to equip young adults with learning difficulties to find sustainable employment and to live independently.
Joan Is pictured with John Thaw. They starred together in Home to Roost with Joan playing John’s home help Fiona.
“Joan made quite an impression”, says Bunty.
The teachers were all delighted and commented on Joan’s dedication and genuine interest in all the learners. All of us who worked with her shall miss her and anyone who met her was a better person for having known her. R.I.P. dear Joan – thank you for your fun ‘WhatsApp’ videos during lockdown, which kept us all so amused. Thank you for your genuine interest in life, truth and humanity! You will be sorely missed.
ESB’s Chief Executive Tina Renshaw, also fondly remembers Joan;
I was privileged to spend time over dinner with Joan at our Annual Training weekend in 2019. I so admired her sense of self, her love of her craft of acting but also her absolute and fierce commitment to assessing those who have additional and sometimes significant learning needs.
“When we were all in the depths of lockdown, I wrote to our assessors offering a poem by Betjeman to nourish our souls. Joan thanked me for sharing a poem new to her and for introducing her to an onomatopoeic word that she didn’t know! That for me was the Joan I admired, open and honest to things new, committed and loyal to things precious to her. Thank you, Joan, for all your work for ESB, we honour your memory and your contribution to our ESB learners and family.
Embracing the change from pre-Covid assessment to online assessment did not phase the ESB learners at Elms Studio! In fact, they positively shone in their assessments!
Taking advantage of ESB’s Adapted Assessment, allowing learners to be assessed using online conferencing software, the learners at Elms Studio wowed their assessor and they all achieved excellent results.
Jenaya Marie, the groups’ teacher at Elms Studio, said:
“Thank you so much to ESB and especially Assessor Rhydian Morgan for allowing our students to have an air of normality in their lives. They were all able to take their ESB assessments that they had prepared for.
In line with the closure of the schools, we moved to remote teaching via Zoom and continued to prepare with the hope there would be a way for the sessions to go ahead. We were thrilled to find out via a Centre Update in May that assessing a group live using video conferencing was one of the options being considered and we continued our preparation with this in mind.”
ESB’s Senior Manager, Educational Delivery, Ben Jackson, said:
“We have taken a proactive approach to helping our centres during the Covid 19 outbreak, with the clear focus to give as many learners as possible the opportunity to achieve the qualifications they have worked so hard for throughout the academic year.
In addition to supporting centres with adapted assessments, meaning learners can be assessed in environments outside the classroom, we have also offered calculated results for our ESOL Skills for Life qualifications and Speech qualifications for learners with special educational needs and disabilities.”
So, has the adapted assessment format been beneficial to learners?
The learners at Elms Studio certainly think so:
“The students thoroughly enjoyed their virtual examinations and were thrilled that they all received Distinctions along with supportive and positive comments to help them improve. We will definitely be entering our students again next year whether this be via Zoom or in a room,”
A Message from our Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw
One of English Speaking Board’s longest-standing assessors Joan Blackham has sadly passed away.