Rukhsana is a 45 year old female with one child under 5 who arrived from Pakistan with her husband four years ago.
She had attended college in Pakistan however hadn’t accessed ESOL classes in the UK. Moving to the UK she realised she needed to improve her English but wasn’t sure where to go as she needed to care for her young child. She enrolled in a class with LEAH at the end of 2023 after finding out that the class had onsite creche support.
Rukhsana wanted to learn English, saying
“I can’t speak in sentences. I want to get better to find a job now my child will be starting school. I like to learn but find it difficult.”
Through the GLA project. LEAH introduced the Hounslow Adult Community and Education (HACE) learning offer as part of a series of sessions on the skills and learning offer in the community. HACE visited the Heston class in February to share information about the courses they offer. During the sessions students that were eligible were given the opportunity to complete sign-up sheet with details of their telephone numbers and postcodes. This enabled the team at HACE to identify appropriate ESOL classes for each individual learner.
To further support learners from informal to formal learning HACE arranged for initial ESOL assessments at a local library 2 minutes from the Heston class. They then arranged to complete Initial Assessments the following Thursday at Heston Library.
The lead for the LEAH Heston class was able to remind learners during the class where the assessment would take place and gave learners a printed handout with the time date location and what to ask the librarian at the library if they couldn’t find HACE employees.
Wanting to take the next step back into work Rukhsana realised that she needed to improve her skills in reading English. After discussions with HACE during the drop-in session at the LEAH Heston class Rukhsana signed up for their ESOL Reading Entry Level 1 course and started her lessons at the end of February 2025.
Rukhsana told us
“I hadn’t heard about them. I have joined that class, and I like it. I like to meet people, learn and gossip!”
July 2025