ESOL Celebration Evening

On 18^th June 2015 we celebrated the achievements of our ESOL learners at the John Pollock Centre Ayr.   This is the third year we have organised the ESOL celebration evening and this year proved to be another successful event.  The evening allowed all our ESOL learners and their families to come together and enjoy an international buffet and a chance to sample some of the international cuisine prepared by our learners

Family members watched proudly as around twenty learners came forward to receive an accolade from Ayrshire College Curriculum Manager Arlene Trapp.  The learners throughout the year were offered the possibility to achieve an SQA accredited award whilst attending their community classes.  This was all possible by means of the ESOL partnership agreement with Ayrshire College.  The teaching and learning which takes place within our community ESOL classes allows for learners to achieve an Access 2 or Access3 level accreditation.  This opportunity can also serve as a pathway to college ESOL provision.

We also took the opportunity to thank Eileen Opiolka for her dedicated hard work as a volunteer and ESOL tutor.  Eileen after many years of teaching ESOL has decided to retire and we presented her with a token of our appreciation for being such a valuable member of the team.

On the whole the evening demonstrated how successful our ESOL learners are and how grateful they are to the Learning Shop tutors for all the support and encouragement they receive throughout the year.

Ann

We're winners!

A joint venture between The Learning Shop and Turning Point Scotland has been recognised at the Adult Learning Impact Awards 2015.

Turning Point Scotland opened a gift shop, Rosie's Retro, in the Kyle Centre just before Christmas to provide work experience and retail training to some of their service users. These are adults with learning difficulties and The Learning Shop team were asked to provide literacy and numeracy support to enable these learners to make the most of their training.



Gail provided weekly workshops to this group of learners, developing the communication and numeracy skills needed for retail work. All members of the group are now happy, confident workers within Rosie's Retro.

We were invited to the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh for the awards ceremony where we were presented with the Innovation Award. Everyone involved with the group is delighted with their achievement!

Gail

Staff update

As some of you may know, Zoe Kennedy, Literacy Development Worker, has moved on to pastures new! We wish her luck in her future ventures!

The rest of the literacy team are working hard to keep The Learning Shop running smoothly while we are short staffed. In the meantime, blog updates may not be quite so regular!

Please get in touch by phone on 01292 263304 if we can help you with anything or you can e-mail Eric at eric.lindsay@south-ayrshire.gov.uk or Julia at julia.wooley@south-ayrshire.gov.uk.

We hope to be able to welcome a new Admin Assistant and a new Literacy Development Worker soon!

Gail

Wee inspirational quote!

“A good head and good heart are

always a formidable combination.

But when you add to that a literate

tongue or pen, then you have

something very special.”

Nelson Mandela

Inspection of the learning community surrounding Carrick Academy

In January of this year the learning community surrounding Carrick Academy underwent an inspection by Education Scotland. The inspectors met with some of our tutors and learners in the area as well as members of staff and we were very pleased, along with our colleagues and partners, with the feedback received in the report. The full report was published on the 10th March and can be found on the Education Scotland website www.educationscotland.gov.uk.
The report stated, among other very positive things, that the impact on participants was excellent, described as outstanding and sector leading. I'd like to thank all our learners and tutors who took part in the inspection and hope that everyone feels proud of the work taking place in the area.

Zoe Kennedy

A lovely success story

I studied so hard for the Life in the UK test but just couldn't get enough to pass - I was so disappointed that I failed the test twice by just a few marks and didn't know what else I could do to improve.

Then I realised I couldn't study alone because I needed more explanation.

Luckily Ann reassured me that this was normal and arranged for a learning shop tutor to help me.

I saw my tutor Marlene twice and week and the difference she made was amazing. She was so patient and helpful, she explained things really well and made me sit lots of practice tests which I passed easily.

This really gave me the confidence to try again.  And guess what, I passed!
I will never forget that moment when I finally had the pass certificate in my hand.
My wife was so proud of me and my mum cried when I called her to tell her the good news.
All that time and test fees were finally worth it. Three days later I got my ILR and look forward to getting my British Citizenship soon.
Thank you Learning Shop.
Hamdi Zenati

“A guid Scottish nicht”

On Thursday 12^th February 2015 in the John Pollock Centre Ayr we had our Scottish celebration evening.  Our invited guests were our learners, their family and friends and Greg Cassidy, Arlene Trapp and Orsyla Dunn, our partners from Ayrshire College. We had the pleasure of having volunteers from the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society.  Wilma Brown who is the secretary of the Ayr branch very kindly helped us with dancing routines for our ceilidh and David Ross the accordionist played traditional Scottish dancing music.  

Our evening started with Rhonda Leith our team leader who welcomed everyone.  Eileen Opiolka one of our ESOL tutors addressed the haggis.  Everyone enjoyed a “ guid” Scottish dinner of Scotch broth or cream of vegetable soup which was prepared by the chef at the John Pollock Centre.   Offerings of haggis neeps and tatties were also on the menu!

We also had the pleasure of listening to Bivas play Auld Lang Syne on the trombone and then later, we all got emotional when the young Kyle Academy pupil sang Caledonia.  Eileen’s learners also gave us a couple of versus of “ Yi cannae shuv  yer Granny aff a bus” 

The evening was a great success and everyone enjoyed themselves.  A big “Thank You” to our ESOL tutors Liza Donaldson, Eileen Opiolka, Irene Lamont and Susan Wilson for all their help.  Thanks to Wendy Kerr our admin guru who welcomed everyone and made sure they were all directed into the cafe area.

The evening proved to be a good example of collaborative partnership working to allow our international learners and their families feel part of the Scottish community.

To the next “nicht oot”                                                                

Ann