English Speaking Board (International) Ltd

Category: Awarding Organisation of the Year

  • ESB Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw, to step down after 9 years

    After nine years at the helm of English Speaking Board (International) Ltd. (ESB International), our Chief Executive Tina Renshaw is stepping down from her role. During her tenure, Tina has led the organisation through a period of growth and transformation, championing the values of accessible, high-quality assessment and communication skills for all. We thank her for her dedication and visionary leadership.

    Tina has shared a personal statement reflecting on her time with ESB International, which you can read below.

    Dear Centres, teachers and tutors,

    I will be leaving my role as CEO of ESB International  at the end of October, as I know that the time is right for me to find a new challenge and for the organisation to embrace new leadership and ideas.

    For 9 years  I have loved this leadership opportunity and feel that the whole ESB International team evolved a new phase for this wonderful organisation of which I am truly proud. To hear  everyday of our impact on your children, young people and adults is life affirming and humbling – their improved Oracy skills or English language skills earning them a qualification. Yet our work together with you as centre organisers, exam teams, teachers, tutors and for your learners creates far much more than that- it grows their  confidence, sense of agency and self respect, they feel the affirmation of achievement, of being listened to when speaking and experience the acceptance and service of learning from and listening to others.

    Tina visiting primary school learners at Broadfields Primary School in Barnet.
    Tina visiting Broadfields School, a primary school in Barnet that has been delivering ESB’s oracy qualifications for over 10 years.
    Tina at the Europalso annual conference.
    ESB International’s Tina Renshaw and Chief Assessor, Anthea Wilson (left), attending the Europalso annual conference. ESB and Europalso have been working together for over 15 years.

    Importantly the ESB International family have also ensured that the legacies of our founders Christabel Burniston MBE and Jocelyn Bell were honoured through our outreach work and showcased in our 70th anniversary celebrations with you, our learners and centres. A wonderful external accolade for our work together was being recognised as Awarding Organisation of the Year in 2023. 

    So ESB International  has begun  a new phase with its search for its next CEO. If you or someone you know is  looking for such an organisation and role: to develop its amazing reputation and grow its reach as an Awarding Organisation and charity, do delve deeper into the information – you have a magnificent team waiting to create and deliver the next chapter with you.

    Thank you for your loyalty to ESB International.

    Tina Renshaw, Chief Executive
    A photo including Tina Renshaw taken at Belfast Metropolitan College's Supported Learning Centre.
    Tina visiting learners at the Supported Learning Centre at Belfast Metropolitan College

    The Honorary Treasurer of ESB International’s Board of Trustees, Dr Jim McAtear, has offered his appreciation for Tina’s many contributions and longstanding commitment to the organisation.

    A group photo including Tina Renshaw taken at ESB International's 70th anniversary celebration at New City College.
    Tina with ESOL Skills for Life learners at New City College, a valued partner who hosted a day of celebration as part of ESB International’s 70th anniversary celebrations.
    A picture of ESB International's Honorary Treasurer, Dr Jim McAtear

    It is with great regret that we begin to say goodbye to Tina Renshaw, our Chief Executive Officer who will leave us in October of this year.. Tina announced her resignation just this week and, in doing so, brings an end to nine years at the helm. She has steered ESB International successfully through to its 70th year as an awarding body as well as its recognition as Awarding Body of the Year in 2023. Tina’s work has ensured the success of our mission to improve the oracy skill, and therefore, the confidence of children, and the social mobility of young people and has promoted the value and benefits of learning English across the globe. We are grateful to Tina for everything she has given and achieved.

    Dr Jim McAtear, Honorary Treasurer
    Board of Trustees

  • ESB welcomes author Meena Kumari Wood as its new Patron

    Headshot of Meena Kumari Wood
    Meena Kumari Wood

    English Speaking Board (International) Ltd. (ESB) Is delighted to announce that author Meena Kumari Wood has agreed to become a Patron of the organisation. 

    The news comes as ESB, an award-winning Awarding Organisation with over 70 years of expertise in offering Oracy and English Language qualifications, looks to expand on the number and diversity of its Patrons. Meena joins as a Patron in the year that the organisation was named as Awarding Organisation of the Year, by the Federation of Awarding Bodies. The award recognised and applauded that as a not-for-profit business, ESB also promotes a thriving Outreach Programme which helps learners facing disadvantage.   

    Consultant, trainer, author, Honorary Fellow in Educational Leadership (Univ. Birmingham), Board Member of Chartered College of Teaching and former HMI (Ofsted), Principal Secondary Academy Principal Adult College and LA Education Adviser, Meena is passionate for ALL young people to succeed in education. She is author of the inspirational book, “Secondary Curriculum Transformed: Enabling All to Achieve”, which highlights the excellent work that ESB does.

    ESB’s CEO Tina Renshaw, says:

    We are delighted that Meena is joining ESB as our Patron. We have been endeavouring to find new patrons to better represent the reach of our many accredited qualifications that we offer. I hope our new Patrons will help to raise our profile and assist us with our philanthropic and fund-raising to support and grow our Outreach Programme. 

    “With her educational and literary background, Meena will particularly focus on our Oracy work with schools, colleges and third sector organisations. This has become even more relevant with the new Labour Government pledging to prioritise Oracy as a crucial part of a child’s education and to ensure that all young people have access to the opportunities they deserve. 

    “Oracy is about learning through talk and learning to talk. The power of spoken language is transformative and larger than developing communicative competence and access to knowledge.  

    “In addition to Oracy as ‘learning through talk’ there is transformative power in applying speaking and listening to real-life situations and simulated experiences. ESB’s accredited assessments provide such experiences. We give learners communication-rich opportunities and a platform on which their voice and their passions are not only heard but valued, delivering confidence and agency.  

    “Meena will help ESB establish itself as a thought leader, with our unique contribution of offering accredited qualifications in the Oracy space in government-funded primary, secondary and post 16 education and in the independent sector. I look forward to her getting involved with our centres to see first-hand their challenges and achievements that they encounter with their ESB learners’ oracy journeys”. 

    Says Meena:

    It is an honour to be a Patron of ESB and I greatly value this opportunity to champion its sterling work. I strongly believe that structured learning for all children and young people to develop their oracy skills should be embedded across the curriculum. These form the foundations for strong reading and writing skills and lead to an inclusive curriculum. 

    In her enlightening book, “Secondary Curriculum Transformed: Enabling All to Achieve”, Meena says: “It is clear that disadvantaged children are the ones most in need of public speaking skills, especially those from homes, where there is not much talk. As we have seen in a world where entrepreneurial skills and communication skills are paramount, all our students must have the confidence and the ability to articulate their opinions; these are attributes that last a lifetime.”  

    Connecting this thought to what ESB offers, she adds: “The ‘Connect, Inform, Perform and Employability’ Pathways in ESB assessments contain specific oracy skills for each context. ‘Connect’ allows students to develop their literacy and analytical skills, through a biographical talk, a chosen poem or drama piece and includes being able to respond to audience questions. ‘Inform’ can be focused on a KS3 topic in any subject. Students may give a personal interest talk, review a news piece and give a persuasive speech, within a political, economic, environmental or social context. ‘Perform’ allows students to unlock their creativity through the performance of a self-composition or performance of an established work. ‘Employability’ supports those who wish to deepen their understanding of a career and to prepare for the job market”.  

    Tina adds:

    Meena joins our other new Patron Disability Rights and Race Equality Champion and award-winning social entrepreneur Dr Kush Kanodia. Kush’s phenomenal work in creating systematic change for the inclusion of disabled people is a perfect fit for our work in giving more learners with significant learning needs the chance to find their voice and empowering them to achieve with our ambitious and inclusive Oracy qualifications.  

    Kush was recently awarded the  Campaigner of the Year Award 2024  by the prestigious Sheila McKechnie Foundation in recognition of his significant contribution to social change through campaigning and advocacy. He has just returned from Paris to attend the Paralympics’ Blind Football Final and the Closing Ceremony, having been a Torch Bearer for the Paralympic Games in London 2012.  

    If you would like to learn more about ESB’s confidence-boosting Oracy and English language qualifications, please get in touch with a member of our Business Strategy Team at  business@esbuk.org. We would love to hear from you.