Out & About in the East Midlands
Summer in the East Midlands! Between April and August 2024, MESH has been researching and writing a report for East Midlands Councils about ESOL across the region. As the project worker, I have been meeting with learners and providers to ask their opinions…
At the end of August, MESH submitted its report on ESOL in the East Midlands region.
First, I mapped all the English classes in the areas around Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Northampton and Lincoln, and we represented this data on a Padlet page.
Then I conducted visits to the region, to make contact with providers in community organisations. I visited a number of third sector organisations that provide informal ESOL, mostly to asylum seekers and refugees.
For our qualitative data, we conducted friendly and informal focus groups, asking refugee and asylum seeker learners about their experiences of English classes. We heard some great stories, some very poignant and heart-wrenching. We encountered learners who had a variety of levels of English, so sometimes we made use of interpreters.
In the provider interviews, I used a question framework based on the ESOL for refugees toolkit, focusing on initial assessment, access and progress.
It has been really interesting mapping the ESOL across this region. ESOL infrastructure varies – as in Yorkshire and Humber, each area has a different history of ESOL provision depending on many factors, including size of city or rurality, historic migration patterns, and the industry in the area. As in Yorkshire, much of the community provision is centred around churches, libraries and community centres. For example, in Leicester at The Race Equality Centre, an innovative teacher was developing a new ESOL for Health and Safety at Work course.
Learners wanted simpler information about classes, more classes across the week, more opportunities to practise, and straightforward pathways into employment.
Providers across the region felt the need to have a professional network. At an East Midlands regional networking meeting, a provider commented:
‘Establishment of a wider ESOL support network would be very helpful […] It would be great to have all this information readily available in one place’.
MESH made a number of recommendations, including having a focus on networking and collaboration, developing a cross-region database of classes, improving training for literacy, SEND and trauma-informed delivery and valuing and supporting community ESOL.
