English Speaking Board (International) Ltd

Category: Oracy

  • Celebrating success at our Young Speakers of the Year Showcase

    2017: ESB’s Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw, with the winners of Young Speaker of the Year Award

    English Speaking Board (International) Ltd. held its annual Young Speakers of the Year Showcase on Saturday, 11th November. Winners travelled from around the country to Liverpool to attend the celebration and receive their awards.

    Out of 15,000 students who took ESB Speech assessments across 2016/17, nine students were selected as winners in recognition for their outstanding spoken language skills.

     

    The 2017 Young Speakers of the Year are:

    Malayka Ali – Plymouth Grove Primary School, Manchester

    Sacha Noursadeghi – Broomfield House School, Richmond

    Mia Pitts – St Francis School, Pewsey

    Morgan Robson – Ruthin School, Wales

    Ameerah Saleem – Wilmslow Preparatory School, Cheshire

    Bradley Tranter – Ellowes Hall Sports College, Dudley

    Joey Webster – Liverpool College, Liverpool

    Joseph Wright – The Chorister School,

    Emma Young – Moreton Hall, Shropshire

     

    The celebration featured two new award categories introduced this year. The Spirit of ESB awards recognise and encourage the potential of all learners, rewarding individuals who showed great promise in their assessments. Also introduced is the Burniston Bell Award, which recognises teachers demonstrating exceptional commitment to ESB.

    The 2017 Spirit of ESB winners are:

    Eloise Goddard – Calder House School, Bath

    Sara Khan – Sir William Burrough Primary School, London

    Liam Barlow – Oakhill Primary School, Stoke-on-Trent

     

    The 2017 Burniston Bell Award winner is:

    Sue Turford – former teacher at Concord College, Shropshire

     

    Each student performed for an audience of family, friends and teachers, impressing everyone with their skills and abilities, and their charisma and confidence.

    ESB’s Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw, says: “ESB’s mission is to extend communication skills, to offer opportunities to stretch the most able, and to support the least confident. We do this in a learner-focused way with our students choosing their own topics, poems and books. It is wonderful reward their achievements and then share their passions at our annual Showcase.”

    One of the winners, Sacha from Broomfield House School said after the ceremony, “I love performing and ESB has reinforced my enthusiasm for listening to, and delivering a good story. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to read aloud my favourite passage from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. It is a day I will never forget.”

    Another worthy winner, Mia Pitts from St Francis School said, “I am thrilled to receive this award, and to speak about my prized instrument, the piano accordion. It was a very special day for me and my family.”

  • Giving youngsters a platform with Speakers Trust

    SpeakersTrust

    English Speaking Board (International) Ltd. and Speakers Trust today announced a partnership based on their shared aims of raising a learner’s confidence and unlocking their potential by developing and enhancing their oral communications skills.

    As part of their new partnership, ESB will create a qualification to support Speakers Trust public speaking courses, which will be added to ESB’s suite of speech products.

    In addition, material from a number of Speakers Trust programs with young people will be endorsed by ESB. This will allow the ESB brand to be marketed to a wider demographic of state schools in London and the South East who have participated in Speakers Trust workshops. ESB Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw, will be part of the judging panel for the Grand Final of the Speakers Trust’s Jack Petchey “Speak Out” Challenge! in London in July.

    Said Tina:

    Our partnership with Speakers Trust is an exciting development. Both charitable organisations share similar visions of raising achievement and providing enrichment for its learners. It is a natural fit for both of us and I sincerely believe our partnership will offer more opportunities for our learners to develop their confidence and become better communicators.

    Speakers Trust Chief Executive, Julie Holness, said:

    Speakers Trust and the English Speaking Board share a commitment to developing articulate young men and women who will speak out, inspire and make their mark in the world. We are proud and delighted to be working in partnership to bring all the benefits of public speaking training and flexible qualifications to an even wider audience.

     

    About English Speaking Board (International) Ltd.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

    English Speaking Board (International) Ltd. is a national awarding body with a mission to promote clear, effective communication at all levels by providing high quality products and services domestically and internationally, recognising and encouraging the potential of all. Founded in 1953, ESB offers English speech and language qualifications in the UK and internationally.  ESB’s ethos is to stretch the most able and support the least confident.

    www.esbuk.org

    About Speakers Trust

    Speakers Trust is the UK’s leading public speaking charity. Our vision is for every young person to be able to speak confidently and to be heard. We work extensively in the education, not-for-profit and community sectors, helping individuals to use their voice with confidence to effect positive change. We run the UK’s largest youth speaking competition which trains over 18,000 young people every year in effective communication skills.

    To find out more about ESB and our work with SpeakersTrust, please click here.

  • Celebrating success! Young Speaker of the Year 2016

    2016: ESB Young Speaker of the Year Award

    English Speaking Board International) Ltd. held its second Young Speaker of the Year awards on Saturday November 12. Winners travelled to The Old Palace in Worcester to attend the celebration and receive their prizes.

    The five winners were selected from 14,000 youngsters who took ESB speech examinations in 2015/16.

    The 2016 winners of English Speaking Board’s Young Speaker of the Year were:

    Gwendoline Hall – Red Maids’ School, Bristol

    Matthew Grayson – Wakefield Independent School, West Yorkshire

    Eleanor Latham – Blessed Trinity RC Collage, Burnley

    Katie Tarrant – Rainham Mark Grammar School, Kent

    Harriet Lang – Moreton Hall School, Shropshire

    Each student performed for an audience of family and friends during the celebration, impressing everyone with their skills and abilities, and their maturity and confidence.

    ESB’s Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw, says:

    Our mission at English Speaking Board is to extend communication skills, to offer opportunities to excel and to inspire confidence. We do this in a learner centred way with our students choosing their own topics, poems and books. It is wonderful to hear of their success and then share their passions at Young Speaker of the Year.

    Harriet Lang from Moreton Hall, said:

    I’ve loved Shakespeare since I was 11 years old and I’m hoping to study English at Oxford. The ACLA (Advanced Certificate in Language Arts) allowed me to choose the topic closest to my heart, which gave me the freedom to explore Shakespeare even further. I relished the opportunity.

    Matthew Grayson from Wakefield Independent School, focused his talk on his love of food. He said:

    Back in May when I did my ESB assessment, the number one place I wanted to visit to experience its food was Copenhagen. This year, my parents took me for my thirteenth birthday so I was able to give an update during my speech at the ceremony.

    The Young Speakers of the Year were joined on the day by the winner and runners up of our successful Sixty Second Shakespeare Competition. The national competition, held to celebrate Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary, displayed the talents of pupils from across the country. They joined the Young Speakers in presenting their winning sonnets to family and friends.

  • ESB announces partnership with The Noisy Classroom

    ESB is proud to announce its partnership with The Noisy Classroom, a website and training organisation dedicated to supporting speaking and listening across the curriculum.

    The director, Debbie Newman, is a qualified English teacher, a former President of the Cambridge Union Society, a world champion debate coach and a former assessor for the English Speaking Board.

    She has gathered together a band of associate trainers whose experience includes working at the English-Speaking Union, the National Theatre and the City Lit.

    These trainers run workshops for students and CPD events for teachers in debating, public speaking and drama. The organisation works with Linklaters to run debating in Hackney primary schools and with the PiXL club to run a national secondary debate programme called “Up for Debate”. The website is full of free to access videos and resources for the classroom.

    Debbie explained the ethos:

    The Noisy Classroom is passionate about helping children to become articulate and confident adults.

    All of our lives we will be judged based on our ability with the spoken word. Whether it is going for a school, university or job interview, delivering a pitch or a presentation, arguing in court or working in telesales, our speaking powers can help us achieve our goals.

    The organisation places particular emphasis on debating; she explained:

    Debating is Oracy Plus. That is because as well as teaching the skills of public speaking, it also develops critical thinking. These skills in turn improve essay writing and examination performance.

    She added:

    That is why The Noisy Classroom is delighted that the English Speaking Board has added debating to its suite of excellent qualifications in oral communication.