Slough & Langley College, a finalist in the 2025/26 Beacon Award for Excellence in ESOL, supports adult learners of English to live and work in the UK thanks to its innovative, wraparound ESOL programme. The college’s comprehensive, targeted GCSE English and maths provision for learners of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) are seen as a springboard for progression opportunities to higher education and employment.
We met with Paula Ferreira, Head of ESOL and Iqra Javed, ESOL Programme Manager, who discuss the college’s ambitious ESOL programme that aims to raise achievement for over 600 learners who are learning English as a second or additional language.
Tell us about your nominated ESOL programme.
Iqra: Our curriculum is designed to get learners out of college. Our main priorities are: How fast can we get learners to where they need to be? What can we do to speed up that process? Our aim is to see learners become a part of society, whether that's working, volunteering, looking after family, or being friends with their neighbours. Ultimately, we want them to become integrated and assimilated.
Paula: Our ‘Step Up’ programme for 16-18 is designed to prepare learners for GCSEs, while our ‘Bridge’ programme for young adults aged 19-25 makes the transition to adult education easier by enabling learners to learn alongside others of a similar age and gives them more than one opportunity to take their GCSEs if they need to.
All our Functional Skills and GCSE English and Maths courses are taught by ESOL teachers, which makes all the difference as they can approach it with embedded language support. We have also responded to our learners’ needs by providing extra hours of English and Maths GCSE classes at their request. This has proved a big success: last year, our learners performed above the national average for GCSE.
What makes your programme different from the rest?
Iqra: We don't just focus on education and achievement, but also everything else that goes around it. Our programme is bespoke and student-centred.
Learners really like the cultural capital curriculum that we've embedded throughout our programme, enabling them to better understand cultural references, nuances, language, and topics encountered at GCSE and in society generally. This aims to get learners on a more equal footing with those who have grown up in the UK with this knowledge, allowing them to access society fully.
Paula: We want to help learners to build their knowledge of the culture around them, and so we don’t just teach in the classroom. For example, we organise a trip to the pantomime each year, because it’s something that is unique to the UK and that many of our learners may never have known about otherwise.
What have been the outcomes for the learners?
Paula: Apart from achievement, the best thing is seeing the learners realise that they can be just as successful here as anyone else. We want them to be able to dream about a better future and equip them with the tools so that they can achieve that. We always encourage learners to think of their differences as a strength: some of our learners come here speaking three different languages already, which is much more than the average person in the UK.
What is next on the agenda for ESOL?
Paula: Like all colleges, we have less funding for our adult learners, so we are thinking about what we really want to focus on. For example, we could ask the National Careers Service to come and run the employability course on our behalf, meaning that students wouldn’t end up missing out on this valuable opportunity if we weren’t able to offer it anymore.
Iqra: We are constantly adapting to what our learners need. We are already planning to take more ownership of some areas in the curriculum to give our learners the best chance possible...but I don't want to prematurely discuss hypotheticals, watch this space and you will see what's next!