Supporting the community: ESOL Virtual School

How we’ve been supporting Ukrainian refugees

Local authorities throughout the UK have recently welcomed an influx of new arrivals from the Ukraine. Language will play a key role in their successful integration to their new community, school or employment that will lay the foundations for building a new life. Inevitably the unpredictable nature of hosting refugees has presented challenges for those responsible for providing support services, including ESOL.  

 Tute’s online provision is well suited to overcoming frequent barriers to refugees accessing ESOL provision including local shortages of suitably qualified teachers, oversubscribed college courses, waiting lists for provision, limited budgets and the location of learners often accommodated in hotels or with host families dispersed across large areas. 

 This half term we have offered free pre-entry level places in our shared ESOL virtual school to help support refugees most in need of language learning. As most of these students are equipped only with a mobile phone, we have adapted our lessons to be accessible this way with a strong emphasis on speaking and listening to acquire the essential everyday English skills. 

Participating LAs receive login details to forward to selected learners along with a step-by-step video guide to logging in with Ukrainian narration to help learners navigate our platform and join lessons with our qualified teachers.  

 Tute has enabled LAs to make ESOL lessons available quickly and conveniently bringing qualified teachers to the location of the learner via mobile phone. 

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