English Classes

Our shelter receives referrals of guests from many different countries. For many of them, English is not their first language and the number of guests citing a lack of English as a support need is significant every year. This poses a significant barrier to both their housing and wellbeing. 

We are delighted to continue to partner with Speak Street to facilitate weekly English Classes during our winter shelter season. Over the course of five months we saw significant improvements not just in their ability to communicate, but their confidence to hold conversations and manage their paperwork and the emergence of a growing bond amongst each other as they also developed friendships and built a community. 

Testimonies

‘Having an English Teacher is Great! and the lessons always have a very friendly atmosphere.’

Paul, Beginner Level Student

“From a C4WS perspective, I hope that the project provided a safe, comfortable space which allowed their guests to engage with topics outside of their immediate situational demands and worries. I think having a consistent presence of myself and Jack helped provide stability to the offering. The great thing about the small groups was that it allowed the tutors to really focus on the learners, and I got the impression that it was something that they appreciated. I also think that our engagement with C4WS was light touch (suiting both parties) as we came in, said hello, did our thing and said goodbye"  

Tieu, Intermediate Level Teacher

“I had a brilliant, rewarding experience teaching English to the guests at C4WS. I was teaching those with an elementary level of English, and over the 4 months of lessons I noticed a marked improvement in their ability to communicate. The students also increased their vocabulary knowledge across a wide variety of topics including transport, body parts, clothes, sports, shopping, directions, weather, and food. Most importantly, I felt like the guests were very engaged in the lessons and extremely enthusiastic about their learning - we had several regular students who always seemed to look forward to the lessons every week. I saw an increased level of confidence among many of the guests, which will hopefully equip them well in the future.”  

Jack, Beginner Level Teacher

Conversation Club

Conversation Club was born in lockdown, initiated by our long-term supporters, Savills. They came up with the idea of facilitating online mentoring sessions for people who wants to develop their English. Whilst we have our English Classes, Conversation Club is more bespoke and encourages people to learn to talk about things they want to use in everyday conversations. It has also been a great tool to help people feeling less isolate.

Testimonies

‘Conversation Club’ is a joint project run by Savills New Homes Team and C4WS. Savills employees spend an hour a week on a one-to-one video call with a guest of C4WS. A number of the volunteers have been meeting the same guest for many months now, and the results have been fantastic! We have seen improvements in both English and the confidence of guests in day to day life.

Tash Price, Sales Associate at Savills, Conversation Club Coordinator