Polish family excels on college’s English course

A Polish family who moved to Shetland in 2014 have excelled in learning English – with one of them off to university to study pharmacy.

The Lis family have achieved SQA qualifications at Shetland College through its English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) course.

Support is provided to help those taking the course improve their speaking, listening, writing and reading skills.

Monika Lis will receive the class prize sponsored by Grieg Seafood, in recognition of her excellent language skills and dedication to her studies. Her tutor, Averill Dorrat, said Monika “is an excellent role model for other young people and is to be commended for her commitment to language learning in her adopted country”.

She preparing to study pharmacy at Robert Gordon University, and is to be presented with her prize at the FE Awards Ceremony on 22nd September.

It has been a particularly impressive year for ESOL exam results at Shetland College, including one student in Orkney, Neus Salomo, who took the course via video conference. She has found employment as a primary teacher in Spain.

Senior lecturer in community learning, Andrew Anderson, said: “in 2016-17 there were 49 students who attended ESOL classes, with most of them being very successful and gaining SQA recognised qualifications. The students often have very busy working and family lives and need to show dedication and commitment to achieve their awards.”

This year all students who sat the Higher ESOL exam passed, with over 60 per cent achieving an A grade.

The college achieved a 70 per cent pass rate within A-C grades across Higher and National 5 exams undertaken. Acting depute principal Susan Berry said: “Strong results were seen within English for Speakers of Other Languages, psychology and sociology. It is positive to see consistently strong results across Higher and National 5 programmes for students at Shetland College UHI.”