Refugee Week 2025
This Refugee Week (16 - 22 June 2025), we celebrate the strength of those who rebuild their lives in new places, and the power of communities that open their arms.
This year’s theme is "Community as a Superpower", something we see every day at LEAH, where learners and volunteers create spaces of trust, hope, and friendship.
Over the week, our staff and volunteers have been hosting and attending events throughout the boroughs we work in.
Keep an eye on our social media to see what we have been doing! You can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky
Kingston Mayor’s Civic Service
To mark the start of the new Mayoral year in Kingston, a Civic Service was held at All Saints Church in Kingston on Sunday 8th June 2025 in the presence of the new Mayor, Councillor Noel Hadjimichael.
The theme of the service, in line with the Mayor’s primary interest, was community resilience.
Our CEO Sohail Faruqi attended the service, and said
It was a lovely service with several community leaders speaking about the importance of community, working together for the greater good and being inclusive. These are essential elements of building and maintaining resilience and speaks directly to the work we do at LEAH.
You can watch the full service here
Vote for LEAH!
We are delighted to have been selected by the Tesco Stronger Starts team to be entered into Tesco store voting across the Kingston Upon Thames borough.
Voting commences from the first week of July to the end of September, so get ready to vote for LEAH!
Depending on the number of votes we receive, we could be in with the chance of winning between £500 to £1,500!
Look out for opportunities to vote with blue tokens for LEAH at the following Tesco stores:
- Hook Express KT9 1EL
- Tolworth Express KT6 7DQ
- Chessington Express KT9 1SG
- New Malden High Street Express KT3 4DQ
- Norbiton Express KT1 3RT
- Kingston Express (by the station, near the LEAH office) KT2 5EB
- Surbiton Express KT6 5AR
- Worcester Park Express KT4 7NW
To check the location of any of the above stores, please go to the Tesco website here: http://www.tesco.com/store-locator/uk
To vote, you will need to make a purchase within store of any value. You will receive one token per transaction, and it's not necessary to purchase a carrier bag in order to receive a token.
Exploring History and Building Connections: LEAH students visit Hampton Court Palace
Last week, students from LEAH’s Buckingham Primary School class and their families enjoyed a memorable visit to Hampton Court Palace - a trip that blended culture, conversation, and community in the most heartwarming way.
Organised at short notice by coordinator Alice Podkolinski, the outing was initially a leap of faith.
"I’ll admit, because it was my first time, I was pretty nervous. I worried no one would turn up and that the language function of the excursion would be lost."
But she needn't have worried.
Despite a slow start and a few traffic delays, all five invited students - and volunteer tutor Audri - arrived just in time. With walking tours, travel envelopes, and tickets in hand, the group set off to explore the historic palace grounds together.
Alice explained that for many, the trip was about more than just history.
“The Buckingham class is small and quite independent. This trip was my first real opportunity to connect with them outside the classroom - and for them to get to know me. It became clear very quickly that the worksheets weren’t the only focus. The English flowed naturally, and the real learning came from simply spending time together.”
The social element was key. Conversations blossomed throughout the walk, and the group ended their visit with a coffee on the palace terrace.
Audri, one of LEAH’s dedicated tutors, said
"The recent visit to Hampton Court with the students from LEAH’s Buckingham Primary School and their families was great fun. I really enjoyed getting to know them on a one to one basis and we all learned a lot about the history of the palace. They told me they had a great time too."
One student had requested an extra ticket for his wife, who had a hospital appointment that morning. Thanks to thoughtful planning, he was able to meet her afterwards and spend the rest of the day with her exploring the palace. He was extremely grateful for the opportunity.
The outing proved to be a powerful reminder that language learning doesn’t stop at the classroom door. Through shared experiences, supportive conversations, and a few moments of laughter, this trip offered more than just a history lesson - it created memories and strengthened bonds within the LEAH community.
Audri has already volunteered for future trips, and the feedback from students and families has been overwhelmingly positive. Here's to more adventures that combine learning with living.
Kingston's new Mayor chooses LEAH as his charity
Councillor Noel Hadjimichael has been appointed the 191st Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kingston and his focus for his year is on resilience. LEAH is one of the two charities he has chosen to support given our work to promote resilience via our volunteer-led programme.
Sharon Landa, Chair of LEAH’s Board of Trustees, said:
'The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames has been a loyal supporter of LEAH's work in supporting displaced people and sanctuary seekers, and it is a testament to the work of our volunteers and staff that the borough’s new Mayor, Cllr Noel Hadjimichael, has chosen to support LEAH during his mayoral term. The honour bestowed upon LEAH has done much to highlight the issues faced by some very vulnerable people in our communities and its impact cannot be underestimated. We look forward to working with the Mayor and Deputy Mayor over the coming year.'
Pantomime fundraiser for LEAH
In January 2025, Merton’s MP3 Players staged their twelfth family pantomime, Aladdin, and generously selected LEAH as the charity to receive the funds raised.
The pantomime was a fantastic success, and it was heartening to see the interest and support for our work within the community.
Thanks to the efforts of the MP3 Players, nearly £2,000 was raised to help us continue offering English lessons to vulnerable people in Merton.
We are incredibly grateful for their support.
For further ideas about ways you could support us, have a look at our 'Other Ways to Help' page here: LEAH (Learn English at Home) – Other Ways To Help
Alternatively, please contact our Fundraising Manager Aileen at fundraising_manager@leah.org.uk
Award for Hounslow volunteers
Following a visit from Councillor Ajmer Grewal to our Heston English class in October 2024, Cllr Grewal nominated LEAH for an award for our outstanding work within the local community.
Our coordinator Savannah and long standing volunteer Alison, who has supported the Heston class since it started, attended the awards ceremony on Tuesday 29th April at the Mayor's Parlour and were delighted when they found out they had won the Recognition award.
The Mayor of Hounslow, Councillor Karen Smith, presented the award and Savannah and Alison were delighted to accept it on behalf of all the Heston volunteers.
A big thank you to our Hounslow volunteers. Without their hard work and dedication we would not have been able to receive this award
Online art classes
Every term we have a speaker week when we usually invite an external speaker to deliver lessons on a relevant topic.
This term, we did something a little different. One of our wonderful volunteers, a retired art teacher, Jane, and one of our Entry Level 2 students who happens to be an artist ran a very inspiring and uplifting art workshop. The student artist started with us as a 1-1, joined our remote group class and has made brilliant progress in her English. It was great to see her confidently lead the group.
Following on from International Women's Day last week, the students continued the theme of celebrating women during the art class. They discussed and compared paintings of and by women and then they were given the chance to participate in a guided portrait drawing session using famous British women who have English as a second language as inspiration (see photos to draw).
Thanks to funding from Arts for All, were able to post all the participating students some art materials to use for this.
Some of the portraits drawn are shown below, and give an idea of what students created in the short time they had. Some of the students had a real hidden talent!
Here are some key take aways:
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- 42 students participated.
- Students were able to use words for feelings (about art) in a safe and non triggering way.
- Students were given the opportunity to do something new.
- Students were encouraged by the lead students's improvement from when she first started drawing. The lead student's message was: "practice makes perfect" and "be kind to yourself along the way".
- Students were incredibly focussed during 20 minutes drawing. We had relaxing music playing and it felt meditative and grounding. We discussed the importance of finding time for yourself.
- The lead student was incredibly grateful for the experience. It has been wonderful to see her work so well with the lead volunteer in the lead up and she delivered the sessions brilliantly.
Here is some feedback from the day.
One client was very proud of what she had created, saying:
I have never drawn before
One of our trustees who attended enthused
The class today was novel and uplifting! What a great idea to do this – many thanks to you, Jane and Slywia. Please pass on my congratulations to them. Also I think it is a first in that a student/client participated in a centre stage role in a lesson which LEAH as an organisation wants more of and which definitely sets a precedent for us to do more similar classes involving our students on a range of subjects.
New Chief Executive Officer
We are delighted to welcome Sohail Faruqi to the team, as our new Chief Executive Officer.
Sohail has a lifelong commitment to tackling social inequality and barriers to inclusion and social mobility, partly driven by his own lived experiences but also from a sense of social justice. A key barrier is a lack of functional English and tackling educational inequality is a prime personal endeavour for him, as education unlocks positive life chance opportunities.
Sohail has worked as a Director of Education in local authorities and been a Chief Executive of a city council, as well as holding a Regional Director role in the civil service. For the last 13 years he has worked in the charity sector, first with a Learning Disabilities charity and prior to joining LEAH, with an education and social mobility charity.
Over the years, he has benefitted from volunteering experiences and been a trustee of several charities.
LEAH receives £10,000 funding from Heathrow Community Trust
We are delighted to have been awarded a grant of £10,000 under Heathrow Community Trust’s Communities Together grant programme which we will use over the next two years to support our learners living in Hounslow.
Learners will be able to access our weekly community English class at the Heston Royal British Legion, and will also have the opportunity to take part in trips and guided walks to local places of interest such as Kew Gardens, Bushy Park, Boston Manor House and Hampton Court.
Learners will be supported to interact with others, make friends, practice their English, and feel part of their community, and will benefit from improved wellbeing, a better ability to access health services, and improved access to opportunities for progression, including into further education, volunteering and employment.
Savannah Smith, our ESOL and Activities Coordinator, said of the grant, “This is a monumental stepping stone that will help us bridge the gap in social integration for our students.”
Heathrow Community Trust is an independent grant-making charity. Set up in 1996 by Heathrow Airport’s then owners BAA, Heathrow Community Trust’s mission is to enable communities to thrive, by having a positive impact on the lives of people in the communities surrounding Heathrow Airport. In the past three years it has awarded more than £1.1 million through its grant programmes, funding projects which empower young people, protect the environment and enable active local communities. Funds come from an annual donation from Heathrow Airport, fines imposed on aircraft that breach noise limits, Team Heathrow donations, passenger donations and Heathrow colleagues who raise funds for the Trusts.
More information about the fund and how to apply for grants is available on the website www.heathrowcommunitytrust.org