Bradford Learners Celebrate

Following our successful volunteer afternoon tea, we prepared to celebrate the achievements of our learners, all of whom arrived at Victoria Hall in Saltaire with a smile on their face. The learners were accompanied with friends, volunteers and staff from centres across the consortium including Meridian Centre, Womenzone, QED, Millan Centre and Safety First Community […]

Following our successful volunteer afternoon tea, we prepared to celebrate the achievements of our learners, all of whom arrived at Victoria Hall in Saltaire with a smile on their face.

The learners were accompanied with friends, volunteers and staff from centres across the consortium including Meridian Centre, Womenzone, QED, Millan Centre and Safety First Community and Training Centre. A number of creative activities were set up around the room in a workshop to engage all learners and to practice their English before feasting on a buffet.

Learners practiced new henna designs and practiced them on templates. Other learners had a headscarf restyle from a volunteer at Meridian Centre who created a flower made up from the fabric from a headscarf and pins. It was ingenious and the learners watched attentively practicing their English for tips and guidance on how to replicate this.

With the help from ‘Creative Flare Bradford’, learners sewed and created artistic hand-made purses and hair accessories for them to take away. The learners were immediately drawn to this and began discussing the best use of fabrics and planning on what they were going to make. One learner proudly showed off two hair bands that she made as a gift for her young daughter.

Other learners practiced their writing skills and wrote down a sentence or some words about the class they attended. There were many favourable comments about the teachers and their peers. Many of them have continued to meet up outside of class.

The bubbles on which they wrote their sentences or words were then glued down onto our fabulous ‘Talk English’ washing line.

Why a washing line you wonder… Well Sir Titus Salt, who built the village Saltaire for his workers in the 1800’s, liked things neat and orderly. He apparently dissuaded his tenants hanging their washing outside on lines across the streets and yards and instead built a wash house with state of the art baths.

To demonstrate how times have changed, we wanted to hang our ‘Talk English’ letters outside on a washing line.

It was a lovely idea… too bad about the windy weather.