ESB News - Autumn-Winter 2021 v7

How is ESB supporting Centres to close the disadvantage gap?

Reaching learners facing disadvantage

A priority for ESB is to support as many disadvantaged groups as possible from the charity and community sectors, as well as educational centres.

Findings so far…..

Impact of the Christabel-Funded Level 3 Certificate in Speech (Grade 8) qualifications on Disadvantaged Learners

The Christabel Burniston Fund, established in honour of our founder, Christabel Burniston MBE, facilitates access to our suite of speech and language qualifications to groups and organisations which are seeking to close the disadvantage gap. We hope to support organisations where their learners face disadvantage and we will support them financially to access our assessments, support and training. In return for support through our Christabel Burniston Fund, we ask that our centres participate in a simple data collection exercise, outlining their learners’ progression before and after their assessments. Learners also complete a questionnaire before and after their assessments. This data helps ESB to understand the impact and importance of oracy and communication assessment, particularly amongst learners who face a range of disadvantage factors: socio-economic, special educational needs and disabilities, migration status and ethnicity.

After completion of ESB assessments:

100% of learners progressed from competent to highly competent in using Standard English when the context and audience required it. The ability to work as a team and communicate effectively in a group improved for all learners. All learners improved from competent to highly competent in both planning for different purposes and audiences, including selecting and organising information, and planning ideas effectively and persuasively for formal spoken presentations and debates. Listening skills showed consistent improvement. 64% of learners were competent, and 36% were judged to not be competent before the qualification preparation period, but by the end 64% of learners were highly competent and 36% were competent at listening to and building on the contributions of others, asking questions to clarify and inform, and challenging courteously when necessary.









ESB will produce an annual report of collated data reflecting on the impact of the fund as a whole so keep an eye out for this!

Centres who provide data will also receive a centre-level support to use to evidence the impact of ESB assessments on their learners. We have already started collecting some impact data as a result of our Christabel Burniston-funded qualifications and we are extremely happy with the outcomes for disadvantaged learners up to the present time.

ESB looks forward to a medium to long term relationship with our financially supported centres to allow us to show the impact of Oracy skills and its assessment beyond short term factors. Please email Christabelburnistonfund@esbuk.org if you want to find out more about the Christabel Burniston Fund.

8