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The event highlighted how learners have flourished into confident young adults after completing their ESB speaking and listening qualification

ESB continues its yearlong 70th Anniversary celebrations this week with a live-streamed event hosted by Belfast Metropolitan College’s Centre for Supported Learning.  

Celebrating its special milestone, ESB put the focus on success stories from its accredited oracy qualifications designed for neurodiverse individuals and shone the spotlight on the learners who enrich its work.

The celebration, led by ESB’s Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw was hosted at Belfast Metropolitan College and saw many ESB organisations with their learners from around the UK joining the event remotely, including Aurora Foxes Academy, based in Somerset; Wirral Metropolitan College in the North-West of England; TCES Group in East London; University College of Isle of Man; The Link Secondary School in Croydon, and Condover College, based in Shrewsbury.

The ESB team, young people and key representatives from Belfast Metropolitan College, including Michelle Devlin, Assistant Director of Curriculum and Sharon Rivers, Head of Department of Health, Wellbeing & Inclusion, as well as representatives from Northern Regional College, also attended in person, together with sponsors and supporters.

Says ESB’s Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw:

This year, we’re celebrating 70 years of realising the potential of all learners. Today we’re particularly showcasing some of our learners who have additional learning needs or learning disabilities, or we might describe them as neurodivergent. As you’ve seen, ESB qualifications and experiences can help these learners by removing barriers to learning by enabling access to a wide range of curricula, building relationships and a sense of belonging, and developing self-esteem and a positive self-identity.

For over 10 years we’ve provided specialist opportunities for learners with significant additional needs to succeed and this commitment is ongoing. At ESB, we want to reach these learners who face disadvantage and help equip them with the essential life skills they need to thrive in education, training and employment, giving them the life choices and freedoms that they are entitled to. It is ESB’s aim to stretch the most able and support the least confident to achieve their potential and help close the disadvantage gap.

Curriculum Area Manager at Belfast Met College, Michael Patterson, said:

Belfast Met has had the honour of working with ESB and has witnessed first-hand the transformative impact that ESB qualifications have on individuals’ lives. Through our partnership with ESB, we have had the privilege of supporting nearly 2,000 students with learning difficulties and disabilities, helping them to overcome significant barriers. As a result, our students can now communicate independently, not just in the college setting, but also in their wider community.

To honour ESB’s 70^th Anniversary, Belfast Met College are planning to plant an ‘ESB tree’ on the College ground during Springtime.

Michael Patterson adds:

This tree will serve as a symbol to our commitment to working with ESB, to support our individuals to achieve their full potential. Just as this tree will grow and flourish with care and attention, so too we can nurture and support those who face additional challenges in their everyday lives and gain meaningful qualifications in employment. Thank you for letting us be part of such a momentous occasion.

Another of ESB’s valued centres, Aurora Foxes Academy, a residential college and training hotel for 16-25 year olds based in Minehead, Somerset, tells us what they like the most about ESB qualifications.

We’d just like to say how honoured and proud we are to join your 70^th Anniversary celebrations today. We have a long-standing relationship with English Speaking Board and all of our students have an opportunity to take the assessment each year.

At Aurora Foxes, our aim is to prepare all our students to be ‘work ready, life ready’. Our curriculum provides students with the skills for both life and employability and the English Speaking Board assessment helps us to achieve this.

Curriculum Lead at Aurora Foxes, Kim Williams and Aurora Foxes Principal, Mark Costello

ESB also heard from The Link Secondary School, an ESB centre based in Croydon, providing a quality education for children and young people aged 4-18 with speech, language and communication needs, including autistic spectrum conditions and Pathological Demand Avoidance. 

We’ve participated in ESB exams at our school for over 20 years. Over the years, students have gained valuable speaking and listening qualifications. We chose ESB due to the range of courses on offer and the different levels of courses students could study at. It’s had lots of impact on our learners, different things, like structuring and organisational skills, attention and listening, social skills and public speaking skills.

Speech and Language Therapist at the Link Secondary School, Charlotte Yeung

Learners also had the opportunity to share their personal experience of ESB. They commented:

“I really enjoyed doing my ESB Level 1 Speaking and Listening Assessment. I wanted to do it to show my understanding and independence. My whole life has been completely changed and now, I feel like I’m ready to be ‘work ready, life ready’.”
ESB Learner at Aurora Foxes Academy, Somerset

“ESB gives us more confidence to stand up in front of everyone in assembly. We can now speak properly and project our voices better.”
ESB Learner at The Link Secondary School, Croydon

ESB will continue to “look back and look forward” to celebrate the impact that ESB speech and language qualifications have had, and continue to have, on so many of its learners through hosting more live-streamed events throughout the year.

For more information about ESB’s qualifications, please contact business@esbuk.org. You can also find out whether you are eligible for financial support through our 70/70 campaign – a further initiative launched to celebrate our 70^th anniversary.

ESB continues its year long 70th Anniversary celebrations this week, with an event hosted by Belfast Metropolitan College’s Centre for Supported Learning.  

The multi-media event will “look back and look forward” to celebrate the impact that ESB speech qualifications have had, and continue to have, on so many neurodivergent learners. 

Says ESB’s Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw, “We can’t wait to celebrate with our centres and learners! As demonstrated through our unique portfolio of speech qualifications, we are committed to supporting all learners – empowering them to achieve their aspirations through the development of speaking and listening skills.  

“By enabling learners to develop these vital communication skills, they can develop a sense of belonging, encouraging autonomy, as well as facilitating the fulfilment of potential.” 

It is ESB’s aim to reach out and to support more organisations where their learners face disadvantage. If you are an organisation interested in ESB’s unique portfolio of Speech qualifications, designed for neurodivergent learners, we would love to hear from you. Please contact a member of our Business Development Team at business@esbuk.org for further information. 

You can also find out whether you are eligible for financial support through our 70/70 campaign – an initiative launched to celebrate ESB’s 70^th Anniversary this year. 

ESB and Europalso have been working together successfully for 15 years – offering high-quality ESOL International assessments to 230,000 young people across Greece.

Watch the video of ESB’s Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw to learn more.

We are always looking for like-minded UK and International centres who share the same goal to improve their learners’ English language skills to work with us.

If you would like to find out more about becoming an ESB centre and you and your learners are based in the UK please contact us. Our ESOL International assessments can be taken online by both UK and International learners.

ESB is excited to deliver confidence-building and oracy workshops to a number of underrepresented young people at National Social Justice Charity, Villiers Park Educational Trust, this week.

Designed to develop Year 10 learners’ key speaking and listening skills, the 5-day workshops, funded through ESB’s Christabel Burniston Fund, are being held at a school in Swindon – with learners completing their accredited ESB Speech qualification on their last day.

Trainer from ESB, Julia Ward, says “I am looking forward to working with the Villiers Park Educational Trust and students who are taking part in a week that will culminate in them taking their ESB Level 2 Certificate in Speech (Grade 4) Speech for Employability assessments. The very fact that these students are prepared to forego their half term to improve their skills of research, speaking and interview techniques, demonstrates a commitment and willingness to do well that will stand them in very good stead in the future. I can’t wait to meet them all.”

As well as learners benefitting from the workshops, a member of staff at Villiers Park also has the opportunity to attend the workshops, to upskill themselves so that, going forward, they can prepare young people for ESB qualifications. 

Gaby Sumner, Interim Chief Executive of Villiers Park says, “Villiers Park is thrilled to be partnering with ESB. Through our flagship Future Leaders Programme, more young people will be able to develop key oracy and English language skills. As a small but ambitious charity with a national reach, its partnerships like ESB which enable us to make a real difference to lives of underrepresented young people”.

Says ESB’s Chief Executive, Tina Renshaw: “We are thrilled to be working in collaboration with Villiers Park. At ESB, we want every individual, whatever their background, to possess the oracy and English language skills they need to achieve their aspirations and enable them to look to the future with confidence.”

Research reveals that more people than ever need help with speech and language challenges.

– Research from Sutton Trust in February 2019, for the APPG for Social Mobility, found that from the age of five, the UK’s most disadvantaged children can be 19 months behind their more affluent peers in vocabulary development, and this deficit can have life-long consequences.

– Young people with SEN often have fewer opportunities in later life: by age 27 they are less likely than their peers to be in sustained employment” (DfE, 2018).

– According to the 2021 schools census there are 1.6 million pupils (19%) who are provided with ‘English as an Additional Language’ support, indicating that a growing proportion of the younger population have significant ESOL needs. A 2019 study by Carlos Vargas-Silva and colleagues concluded that asylum migrants – defined as those asylum seekers who have been granted citizenship in the UK – had an employment rate of 51% compared to 73% for the UK-born and earned on average 55% less per week and 37% less per hour.

Tina adds: “ESB qualifications encourage social mobility and promote learners’ confidence – preparing them for aspirational opportunities in study and work. Learners have the opportunity to complete a qualification specific to their life goals and competencies.

“I so look forward to having the opportunity to equip more underrepresented groups with essential oracy and English language skills through our partnership with Villiers Park.”

“As we celebrate ESB’s 70th Anniversary throughout 2023, we are hoping to reach more organisations where individuals face disadvantage and support them financially to access our wide range of speech and language assessments as part our 70/70 Campaign. 2023 is such an exciting year for us and we would love to share the magic of ESB with you.”

Who is eligible for support through the Christabel Burniston Fund?

If you are an organisation, similar to Villiers Park – sharing the common belief that communication lies at the heart of social mobility – and you believe that your community members could benefit from our qualifications but you are concerned about fees, please do get in touch. We would love to hear from you.

We use two main sets of indicators for state schools
– The percentage of pupils receiving Pupil Premium.
– The Government’s Indices of Deprivation for the area that your school serves.

For third sector organisations we will look at your current income and external funding and the Government’s Indices of Deprivation for the community your organisation supports.

If you would like further information about the financial support that ESB could offer your organisation, please click here or email business@esbuk.org.