The Creative English class at the Loxford Children’s Centre in Ilford is led by Sue Griffin, who has written about her experiences before. Last year, local MP Mike Gapes came to a class to see how Creative English is changing people’s lives.
Sue told us about one of her learners who started volunteering to help her with another class.
Sarbjit came to my class in Redbridge every week, and it was clear that her English was good, although she was very quiet and nervous. When my class in Newham was being set up, I needed a volunteer but it was not an area I’m familiar with. I considered all the people in my Redbridge class with a view to inviting someone to work with me. Of those I asked, Sarbjit expressed the most enthusiasm.
So every week, I pick her up and we drive to Newham. She sets up the room, registers people, translates for me into Punjabi, Urdu or Hindi and has even looked up Bengali words on Google so that she can understand our students from Bangladesh. She acts in our drama sketches and participates in all the games. The students like her a lot.
