Ben Darby, IH London’s English teacher who is currently working at Hackney Migrant Centre, gives us his first update of the New Year.
“In my last post I mentioned that the students in the English class at the Hackney Migrant Centre were very keen to have more lessons. So it’s great news that from this Friday - with the support of International House - the Centre will open an additional class. This will be an extension of the Wednesday lesson, open to the same students and building on the same syllabus.
The English class will take place in the same venue, St Mary’s Church. It will be a little different from Wednesdays as there won’t be the other services that the Centre usually offers (legal and health advice, as well as lunch provided by local business). This has one advantage in that we will have more rooms available and so will be able to use a more comfortable (and warmer!) space than the room above the vestry.
By doubling the provision of English classes we hope that the students will be able to make faster progress on the ‘Skills for Life’ syllabus. ‘Skills for Life’ is a literacy project organised by the government which produces teaching materials suitable for the needs of migrants settling in the UK. The students have now successfully progressed to the second level of this course. So, all in all, a good start to the year at the Hackney Migrant Centre.”
Read more about English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) and find out how you can access ESOL services.
