Volunteer Training at Manchester Art Gallery

Saturday 10th November saw another lively and productive training day with our wonderful volunteers at Manchester Art Gallery.  46 volunteers attended from across the North West, including 21 from areas outside of Manchester such as Oldham, Salford, Bolton, Blackburn and Rochdale.  It was great to see so many enthusiastic people participating in activities, sharing ideas […]

Saturday 10th November saw another lively and productive training day with our wonderful volunteers at Manchester Art Gallery.  46 volunteers attended from across the North West, including 21 from areas outside of Manchester such as Oldham, Salford, Bolton, Blackburn and Rochdale.  It was great to see so many enthusiastic people participating in activities, sharing ideas and getting to know each other!

The morning session included a carousel workshop led by Talk English staff.  Volunteers had the opportunity to discuss practical ideas for teaching and experiment with activities such as ‘Creating your own Speaking Boards’ and ‘Back-to-back Role Plays’.  One volunteer said,  “I’ll use the role play idea with my learners on Monday!“.

The drilling workshop proved to be the favourite.  One volunteer said:  “I shall try some of the drilling techniques as some of the ideas were new to me” and “It was a great opportunity to improve teaching skills“.

Volunteers also had the opportunity to head out into the gallery and devise a speaking activity for learners using an artwork as a starting point.  By the end of the day, volunteers felt much more confident about planning trips to take their own learners out to local galleries and museums.