Partnerships teach us… English
Our ESOL (English) team has made a real push over the last academic year (2019-20) to develop its partnership working. We want to share some examples of the fantastic collaborations that went on:
Cooking project
In partnership with Z2K, Waste Not Want Not in Battersea and local volunteer Jeanette, we were able to offer a healthy vegetarian cooking workshop for 4 of our students each week, from the beginning of 2020 until lockdown. Many of our students are amazing cooks, but didn’t always have the confidence or have the time to risk experimenting with new foods.
Thanks to generous donations of really interesting fruit and veg from Hadas at Waste Not Want Not, funding for essentials from Z2K and Jeanette’s imagination and enthusiasm, the students got to make some really interesting and tasty dishes .There was always enough food for the students to take home to share with their families and even better, the staff at KLS got to eat as well! This is an important project that will continue when we are able.
CV workshop with AS Watson Group
10 volunteers from AS Watson Group visited in October and ran two CV writing workshops with our higher-level students. Each pair of students were able to work on a bespoke CV which these experienced professionals helped them put together. For some students this was the first time they had seen their achievements put together in a CV.
One student, M, who had been wanting to change her job for some time, immediately sent off her CV to several companies she wanted to work for and had two interviews in the coming weeks. Although she is still looking, she feels really positive and has gained a lot of experience from those interviews that she will be able to use in the future.
Climate change studies
Our E3-L2 students acquired a lot of their language studies through immersion in a year-long project on the subject of Climate Change. Though aware of some issues, the pressures of bringing up families in a country with a different language (as well as all the other pressures of being a migrant), much of the present zeitgeist was beyond their experience and grasp. The subjects they focused on were food, clothing and pollution and the effects of our consumption of these on the planet. Studying a lot of new vocabulary alongside encouragement to watch and listen to the news in English, the students were excited and empowered to believe that they had the ability to change the future and get involved in community action.
Reusable Theatre shared one of their actors with us for the afternoon – Rosanna did an improvisation workshop with our students which we followed up by taking several students to see their play “This play will change your life” at City Lit in December.
Steve from Extinction Rebellion came and ran a seminar with the students on the effects of climate change and the changes we can all make to our consumption habits.
Thomas School Year 9’s Conversation classes.
In February and March, Thomas’ school Year 8’s, visited every Thursday for a half hour conversation session in groups with our Entry 3 class. Each week they chose a different subject – mobile phones, gaming, sport, religion etc. and came prepared with lots of questions for the students. They were thoroughly engaging, erudite and interesting. It was a great opportunity for our students to meet children who were often the same age as their own, but from different cultures and experience, and to have the opportunity to have a proper conversation with them. The students had the chance to hear the opinions and feelings of children (who weren’t their own) and have a really good conversation about issues that affect them all. They were also amazed at the children’s confidence! A really successful project that we hope we can repeat in the future.
Screening of “Sky and Ground”
The director of Sky and Ground, Talya Tibbon, let KLS do a charitable screening of her amazing documentary, followed by a Q&A, in February. The ESOL students made it a hugely successful evening by putting on an amazing spread of food and many of them were on hand to talk to visitors during the event. This raised nearly £1000 for KLS. Well done!
Other workshops
South West London Law Centre ran four well attended finance workshops on important subjects like Universal Credit; paying bills; budgeting and saving money.
Citizens Advice Bureau ran a bespoke advice session for our students on Settled and Pre-Settled status for those of our students with EU passports. Lucia Palma was very knowledgeable and patient with our students and was able to help with a lot of the issues encountered.
Work with us? Get in touch with your ideas
If you’d like to get involved with our work then do get in touch with us on 020 7223 2845 and [email protected]
