Have you been thinking about how to support refugees in your city?
As you may be aware, when a refugee arrives in the UK, they are not entitled to mainstream ESOL classes for the first 6 months or until they receive a positive decision on their Home Office Application. And then, when someone is destitute, they are also not able to access these classes either.
Some of you might be aware of Refugee Action’s ‘Let Refugees Learn’ Campaign. In Birmingham, we have been exploring what we can do to increase the ESOL provision for those that cannot access mainstream classes.
We mapped the current ESOL providers that cater for this group of vulnerable people, which can be found here.
And following this, we are very excited to be hosting an ESOL Forum Event on January 28th. Whether you are a complete newbie to English language teaching, have lots of creative ideas about how to teach English, or you’re part of a long standing project, this event is for you!We are excited about what may come out of this. Some ideas so far have included:
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Developing a pool of voluntary teachers that could potentially volunteer across projects
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Sharing lesson plans and resources
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Training and events to share good practice
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Sharing exam entries
- Transferring students between centres when they move
We look forward to seeing you there!
For more information on ESOL and links to resources see the City of Sanctuary ESOL page.