Feels Like Home for our ESOL students

Our English for Speakers of other Languages (ESOL) students have attended an online information session with Joanna Sutcliffe from Barnsley Museums, where they had the opportunity to find out more about Feels Like Home: a weekly group specifically for ESOL learners, international students and for anyone who does not speak English as their first language.

Joanna, who runs the group, explained its purpose, which is to improve English, connect with local people, share world cultures and learn more about life in Barnsley and the heritage of the town.

Usually, the weekly group meetings would take place at Experience Barnsley and its members would have the opportunity to visit museums and galleries and attend cultural events. Due to the current climate, however, the meetings are now taking place online, so the group can still benefit from sharing ideas and connecting with other members.

During this session, our students had the opportunity to ask Joanna questions and find out more about how the group can benefit them.

Jess Widdowson is the Enterprise Team Leader at Barnsley College, and she helped organise the session. She said: “Working with local business is a key factor in ensuring that we can provide enrichment opportunities for our students’ personal, social and professional development. Working with Joanna provided a great opportunity for our ESOL students to get involved with the local community and meet like-minded people.

“We are also working with Barnsley Museums and looking into the possibility of providing some creative online projects where students will have the opportunity to take virtual museum tours and visit art exhibits online.”