‘Ready, Steady, Learn!’ – Salford cooking group aims to teach English through the power of food

A Salford primary school has teamed up with a cookery club to help teach English through a shared love of food.

Marlborough Road Academy has come together with the Heart and Parcel organisation to provide English language skills for those struggling with English as their second langauge.

The classes were originally offered to any ethnic minority women and children struggling with English in any way. However, they are now open to anyone of any race, age, religion and gender.

Heart and Parcel, founded in 2015, teaches member of Greater Manchester’s ethnic communities essential skills through English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes. All while serving them with a scrumptious side of dumplings.

What a busy session yesterday up in #Salford for our #Sharethedish cooking & #ESOL sessions! We had special guests Dimitra making her delicious moussaka, and @SalfordNow joining us to capture our unique approach to ESOL! pic.twitter.com/CPOuDmiGgw

— Heart & Parcel (@heartandparcel) October 19, 2019

Co-founder of the group, Clare Courtney, said: “It is important to do our classes informally and creatively, because the English classes we have currently by the government, that are funded, are not particularly inclusive and have restrictions that they allow on their classes.

“You need to have a visa, a job, be at a certain level or ethnicity.”

In 2014, a survey by the National Association for Teaching English and other Community Languages to Adults (NATECLA) revealed that 66 percent of those who are eligible for ESOL lessons claimed the main reason for not going was “lack of funding”.

Additionally, according to the government, 726,000 people in England and Wales can only speak some English, and a further 130,000 can not speak any at all.

Judith Richards, the headteacher at Marlborough Road Academy, added: “We have 47 languages represented, 50 ethnicities and 70 percent of our students have English as a second language.

“We have some bilingual stuff but we cannot cater to all languages that people have.”

Classes take place every Friday from noon-2pm at Marlborough Road Academy, Dudley Street, Salford, M7 4XD.

Featured Image Credit: Charlie Mulholland