Empowering English language learners at the Crisis Graduation Ceremony

This week IH London teacher and trainer David Riddell attended the student graduation ceremony at Crisis.

Crisis is a homeless charity that we work closely with to provide English lessons for speakers of other languages (ESOL). The International House Trust sponsors a teacher to work at Crisis to help improve the students’ English speaking and writing skills, as well as their confidence.

The graduation ceremony at Crisis is a regular event to recognise the students’ achievement in a range of different courses. David reports here on the graduation ceremony experience:

“It was my great pleasure to once again attend the Graduation ceremony at Crisis, and to once again experience the amazing atmosphere that exists on these occasions.

One by one, students received certificates for their work in a multitude of courses offered. As well as ESOL, the centre offers Maths Through Cooking, Hat Making, Strictly Skylight, Beginners Guitar and a host of other courses.

It was a joy to see the look on people’s faces as they received their certificates – such pride and achievement, and gratitude, too, for being able to not only study in such an environment, but also to feel part of the Crisis family. There is the overwhelming feeling of the Crisis centre being like a family home with great love and support evident everywhere you look.

There were inspirational testimonies of achievement from students, and humbling life stories. We heard from one person receiving a special recognition certificate after her studies led to her starting her own business selling Ethiopian bread!

We witnessed a fantastic dance display from Strictly Skylight which would surely even have got a ‘10’ from Craig Revel-Horwood! And the whole audience joined in singing a special song for the occasion.

It was good to meet Jagtar and Liam, the IH London teachers working at Crisis, and to hear about their projects. As well as the ESOL courses that Liam runs, Jagtar teaches a range of courses including a women-only IELTS course, and a Literacy and Cultural Affairs course.

Above all, though, I noticed the pride not only in the faces and speeches of students, but also in the faces and speeches of staff members. The commitment and dedication of staff is obvious, as is the joy they share with their students when achievement is recognised. For them this not just ‘a job’ it is part of their life.

Crisis is hugely appreciative of the support they receive from IHL, but we at IHL are also deeply grateful to be part of the work they do and we look forward to many more years’ collaboration.”

How to make a carrot cake

Today is IH London Finance Manager Joao's birthday. We've been celebrating with a huge carrot cake made by Mat in the Sales Team.

Carrot cake is made with grated carrots mixed with cake batter. The carrot softens as the cake cooks, making it very soft and moist. The cake doesn't taste like carrots!

A little bit of carrot cake history

Carrots have been used in sweet cakes since medieval times when sweeteners were rare and expensive. Carrots - which naturally contain a lot of sugar - were much easier to get and were used to make desserts.

Carrot cake is originally thought to have come from Scotland. It became popular again in Britain during the Second World War because of sugar rationing.

Carrot cakes started appearing in cafes in America in the 1960s. They were a novelty item at first, but people liked them so much that carrot cake became a standard dessert.

How to make your own carrot cake

This recipe makes one 7 inch (18 cm) cake with cream cheese icing on the top of the cake only.

(The cake in the picture consists of two 9” cakes and two 7” cakes sandwiched together and balanced on top of each other! To make this two-tier cake you need five times the cake recipe, 10 times the cream cheese recipe, and 2 times the vanilla butter icing recipe below.)



For the cake:

150g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
150g soft dark brown sugar
250g grated carrot
150ml corn oil
2 eggs (beaten)
1 tsp vanilla essence

For the cream cheese icing:

50g butter (room temperature)
75g full-fat cream cheese (you can use half fat, but not fat free)
½ tsp vanilla essence
100g icing sugar

For the vanilla butter icing:

250g icing sugar
115g softened butter
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

Cake:

1) Preheat the oven to Gas 4 or 180C
2) Grease and line a 7” cake tin
3) Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and cinnamon into a mixing bowl. Add the caster sugar and the carrots and mix together.
4) Beat the eggs and add them to the mix along with the oil.
5) The mixture will look like a thick batter – pour this into the tin and cook in the middle of the oven for 35-40 minutes or until the cake is firm when pressed
6) Leave to cool

Cream cheese icing:

1) Mix the cream cheese with the butter until smooth.
2) Add the milk and vanilla essence
3) Sieve the icing sugar into the mixture beating with and electric whisk
4) Once the cake is cool spread the mixture over the top of the cake

Vanilla butter icing:

1) Sieve the icing sugar into the butter and mix with an electric whisk.
2) When ingredients start to come together, add the milk and the essence
3) Mix until smooth
4) Add any colouring that you may want
5) Decorate the cake using a piping bag.