Chance to learn English in Barnsley charity's new ESOL classes

Educational Learning Support Hub (ELSH) is opening on Monday, November 2 on the first floor of the ELIM Community Centre in Warren Quarry Lane, Barnsley.

ELSH closed at the beginning of lockdown and says it has been battling to fully reopen while restricted to providing limited online help to its students.

“The National Lottery Community Fund, The Good Things Foundation, Barrow Cadbury Trust, Coalfields Regeneration Trust, as well as local funders, SYFAB and Barnsley Council's Covid Resilience Fund have all helped ELSH keep going for the last seven months and fulfil our plans to expand our services from now on,” said founder and CEO, Florentine Bootha-King.

“A big thank you from ELSH goes to them all."

She continued: “From the outset of COVID -19, we knew that our old premises in Sheffield Road would not provide the Covid-secure environment for face-to-face lessons to restart safely for its students and teachers.

“We also recognised that we needed to expand our lessons in English as a second language to provide them online 24/7 too.”

ELSH will reopen for the enrolment of students from 10am on November 2.

Students are asked to ring 01226 643249 or complete the contact form on the new website www.elshub.org.uk rather than turn up.

“We ask students to be patient as we expect demand to be very high. We will arrange an appointment with them to come in and fill out an application form, create a student ID card and discuss their individual needs.

"We can now hire out mobile phones and Wi-Fi equipment so they can fully participate in our new and exciting online learning programme.

"If further Covid-19 restrictions come in we can seamlessly switch to providing 100% of our lessons online.

"We will also be providing lessons in life skills, including mathematics and IT.

"ELSH serves the recently-arrived BAME community that faces significant prejudice, discrimination and disadvantages in gaining further education and work due to their insufficient grasp of English.

"ELSH aims to help them overcome these barriers,” added Mrs Bootha-King.

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