Classes, Activities & Advice

Our English Language Coordinator, Nicci Golland, works closely with our teachers to run classes that are creative, participatory and grounded in learning about the new city and country our community members now live in. Inspired by the work of the Brazilian Marxist educator Paulo Freire and trainings by the NGO English for Action, our teachers take the approach that our students are at the centre of their own learning. In our classes, students co-construct knowledge and address issues relevant to their lives, rather than following a pre-determined curriculum. In recent months, this has included learning about how to start managing bills and money in everyday life using our homegrown Fun with Finance resource, and periodic ‘classroom flipping’ in which our students teach their teachers basic phrases in their first languages.

Our classes are particularly vital for newly-arrived asylum-seeking people, who cannot access free funded college ESOL education until six months after they have first claimed asylum in the UK. In those first six months, it is only through West London Welcome locally and local libraries that they can start learning English for free.

As students progress their English language skills, they progress upwards through our class levels. At the end of the year, all students receive certificates and we celebrate their learning.

For most of our community members, our English classes form the foundation for their first friendships at our centre. Our classes and teachers enable essential new bonds and networks of support that blossom week by week, and our community members consistently tell us the classes are one of the centre’s activities they most treasure.