Case study: ESOL and Maths Pilot at South Bank Colleges

The ESOL Adult Learning Service at Lambeth College, now known as South Bank Colleges, has been running a pilot over 18 weeks to fully understand the barriers ESOL students experience with learning Maths, and then removing them. The project aimed to support our ESOL Entry 2 and Entry 3 students with learning Maths, and our ESOL staff to unlock their own potential for teaching Maths, to support progression in work and education. We believe that ESOL teachers are best placed to unlock the English language needed to enable ESOL students’ access to Maths.

Alongside ESOL classes and run in alignment with their ESOL timetable to improve accessibility, students took part in a Functional Skills Maths class at Entry 1 and Entry 2. The process we put in place was aimed at building confidence with using Maths every day for staff and students and increasing motivation by connecting the learning with values and outcomes that improve overall life experiences and create meaningful work opportunities.  We connected learning with helping students to better manage their everyday finances and supporting their children with homework. This approach has supported us to contribute towards Lambeth’s Skills and Employment Strategy and enhanced our curriculum offer to support increased access to maths.

The results have been beyond our expectations. The vast majority of students passed first time, and by the end of the pilot, we had a 98% pass rate. We are now in semester 2, where students are progressing onto the next level for both ESOL and Functional Skills Maths.  We were able to capture their voices and experiences on video demonstrating the impact on their life and learning from both staff and students. We hope this will support us engage even more ESOL students to learn maths and ESOL teachers to train as Maths teachers, helping us close the gap in skills as well as the shortage of Maths teachers.

We have successfully begun the process of creating a more inclusive curriculum offer that supports the progression of ESOL learners into mainstream education and assists them with acquiring the skills needed to demonstrate what they are capable of achieving. ESOL students themselves have also been surprised at what they have achieved because many had low confidence in Maths prior to the pilot.  We were able to, through this pilot, work with staff and students to overcome some of their insecurities and the assumption that Maths was not for them. Our teachers have also travelled the same journey alongside our students. The college is also running ‘ESOL number’ and ‘ESOL for managing money’ as standalone options through Multiply Funding this year.