ESOL and Childcare

The Mayor’s ESOL Plus Childcare project worked with partners to meet gaps in ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) provision for learners with childcare responsibilities. City Hall awarded £80,000 funding to two grantees – Poplar HARCA and Sutton College – to deliver innovative pilot projects to meet the needs of learners with childcare responsibilities, and to evaluate this work to support the case for more accessible ESOL with childcare. 

Learning from the ESOL Plus Childcare Programme, including guidance which provides practical advice on how to set up or improve provision for learners with childcare responsibilities, can be found below.

Poplar HARCA

Poplar Housing and Regeneration Community Association (HARCA) was awarded funding by the GLA to deliver a one year pilot ESOL Plus Childcare programme between July 2018 and July 2019. Poplar HARCA set out to deliver a provision that catered for parents, ensured local accessibility, offered a family friendly environment, had a crèche on site, and offered a timetable that fitted around school times and holidays. In addition to the term-time programme, holiday activities were to be provided for the whole family, including the school-aged children of learners.

Sutton College

Sutton College was awarded funding ​​​​ by the GLA to deliver an innovative ESOL Plus Childcare pilot between November 2018 and March 2019. This was a partnership between four local authority-run Adult and Community Learning providers (ACL): Sutton (SC), Croydon (CALAT), Kingston (KAE) and Westminster (WAES). The project supported learners with pre-school children or expectant mothers. The project was primarily designed to provide a supportive and nurturing environment for parents to develop their language skills through designing a ‘book’ or a ‘keepsake’ box for their children which describes their journey into society in this country.  

The projects formed part of the Mayor's ESOL Plus Programme which funded innovative pilots to address key barriers and improve access to ESOL for Londoners with English language needs, and ran between 2018 and 2021. The programme included three pilots: ESOL Plus Employers, ESOL Plus Childcare and ESOL Plus Arts.

In 2013, the English: the key to integration in London programme was jointly funded by the London Schools Excellence Fund (LSEF) and the Home Office-administered European Integration Fund (EIF). The EIF funding (£1.5 million) was awarded under Strategic Priority 3 (capacity building and dissemination) which supported the integration of non–EU nationals in member states. Projects funded by the programme provided support to both non-EU pupils with English as an Additional Language (EAL), and to non-EU EAL mothers.

The programme was launched in October 2013 with two main objectives:

• to improve the quality of teaching provision for non-EU EAL pupils in primary and secondary schools
• to improve the English language skills of non-EU EAL mothers to encourage their involvement in the school community

Funded was awarded to 13 lead partners, including schools, social enterprises and London boroughs.

Throughout the programme, these partners:

• worked successfully with 85 schools across 14 London boroughs
• provided EAL training to 733 teachers
• improved the English language skills of more than 900 non-EU EAL mothers

Participants reported a number of positive outcomes, including:

• developing and sharing teaching resources
• continuous professional development of teaching staff
• identifying other funding sources
• viewing parts of their projects as integral to their core business

You can read a case study of each project funded by the programme at English: the key to integration in London. 

LEAH

Learn English at Home (LEAH) is a charity working across Southwest London supporting ethnically diverse adults including refugees, people seeking asylum and migrants to learn English, empowering people to become active participants in their local communities. 

1 to 1 classes: Clients are paired with a trained LEAH volunteer to support them with their English, learn about vital local services and support integration into local communities. LEAH’s one-to-one service is for clients who are unable or would struggle to leave the home to learn because of health reasons, caring or childcare responsibilities, past trauma or not yet being ready to learn English in a formal setting. Volunteers support clients for an hour a week for up to a year and can be arranged around the individual and are currently being delivered remotely.

Group Community classes: LEAH runs small classes in the community for clients to progress from their one-to-one service and for clients who may be more confident to learn in a group setting. Classes focus on building confidence, developing language skills, progression and integration. Classes are delivered remotely and at local community venues and run termly for up to a year. 

Social Integration trips and visits: LEAH volunteers support clients to build networks, reduce their isolation, learn more about their local community and practise their English between their LEAH 1:1 support or community class to support transition and progression. LEAH runs trips to local museums, galleries, libraries and sites of historic interest in the local area. LEAH can support people with limited English across Southwest London who have barriers to attending a formal college course and they have previously supported Syrian refugees arriving via the UKRS. LEAH enables clients to gain confidence, develop support networks, access services for themselves and their children and make their first steps towards college, volunteering and employment. The LEAH team supports 300 people annually.

Learning Unlimited

Learning Unlimited (LU) a not-for-profit social enterprise specialising in adult and family learning, ESOL and integration, literacy, numeracy and teacher education. We are currently leading on the Communities Language and Integration Project (CLIP) funded by the Asylum Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), which supports language learning and integration for refugees and non-EU migrants, which now includes those recently arrived from Afghanistan and Hong Kong. Over the last two years the project has supported over 150 people and their families, many of whom are unable to access AEB funded classes due to not being eligible, having young children, irregular work shift patterns or other reasons. The CLIP project offers:

• ESOL classes with accreditation
• online conversation clubs run by our trained team of volunteers
• other workshops and clubs, such as writing, photography and cinema
• family workshops, trips and activities
• signposting to other relevant training, events and support.

Before the pandemic we worked in Haringey, Southwark and Lambeth children’s centres and primary schools supporting refugee/migrant parents/carers. When the pandemic struck, we moved our entire programme online, and it predominately remains online to this day. Our online classes, conversation clubs and workshops are flexible and accessible; people can attend wherever and whenever. There are many who wouldn’t be able to attend face-to-face classes for different reasons including travel, family, safety and work. Our tutors and volunteers now have a lot of experience teaching and supporting on Zoom and have brilliant activities and resources to keep sessions inclusive, fun and interactive. We support people new to Zoom and loan tablets to those who need them.

Initially this wasn’t easy; it was new to us all but particularly difficult for those with low level English, literacy and/or IT skills. Our beginner ESOL classes started by communication and support through WhatsApp. Some of our families had limited or no access to Wi-Fi or screens and we were able to start loaning tablets. This made a big difference to some, enabling learning and connection, reducing isolation during difficult times. By September 2020 we had adjusted to this new online world and started a timetable of levelled classes (beginner to advanced) available to all Refugees and non-EU migrants around London, and even further afield. We trained volunteers to run conversation clubs and give 1:1 exam preparation support. We delivered other workshops including supporting parents with home schooling, yoga and writing (culminating in publications of learners’ stories as ESOL readers to support others new to the UK and learning English).

What we started then carries on today. We have two classes that have resumed face-to-face in Lambeth and Southwark (with a crèche) which are popular, but the rest continue online. Online learning allows flexibility and accessibility to many who wouldn’t be able to attend face-to-face provision for different reasons. Registrations take place on Zoom where we support those new to the platform, explain what we offer, find out about the person, their skills, needs and goals and assess their language levels. In the summer term, we offer accreditation through the English Speaking Board (ESB). In 2021, 95 per cent of our learners chose to take exams, which took place on Zoom, and we were thrilled with our 86 per cent pass rate. Our three online conversation clubs are drop in and everyone is welcome, including family, friends and others in the local community.

• Bethnal Green Academy
• Camden School for Girls
• Childeric Primary School
• Glebe Primary School and UCL
• Heston Community School
• Kelmscott School
• Learning Unlimited
• London Borough of Barnet
• London Borough of Enfield 
• London Borough of Harrow
• Springfield Primary School
• Vauxhall Children’s Centre
• Waltham Forest Adult Learning Service