Tell us a bit about your group/community

Welcome to English helps newcomers to Hull – mostly refugees and asylum seekers – to learn English, make new friends and find out about living in Hull, through community participation. We offer language lessons throughout the week during term times, some general and some on special topics such as ‘using public transport’ or ‘cooking and recipes’, as well as family-friendly sessions and extra-curricular events during school holiday periods.

We work with people from all over the world, and currently have learners from Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Ukraine, Hong Kong and many other countries.

How did you get started on your #TeamWilder journey?

A member of staff at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust had previously led some guided walks around a local park for some of our learners and passed on some information about their #TeamWilder initiative.

We are always keen to look at new partnership opportunities as they often present good opportunities for linguistic and cultural learning for our learners, and so were happy to find out more. Based on previous experiences of some other partnership work I didn’t have especially high expectations initially, presuming it would perhaps lead to a few novel sessions for our learners, but actually #TeamWilder has proved to be so much more than this! 

What actions have you taken for wildlife in your community and why?

To begin with, we had no real access to outdoor space that we could work on, so a first step was to build relationships with a local landowner; Andy supported us to make contact and negotiate an agreement with Goodwin Development Trust for us to share stewardship of an underused community garden near to our classrooms, and to gain permission from Cosmo CIC to use a plot on their Thornton community allotment site.

So a key focus of our work has been running regular gardening sessions on the allotment, where our learners have been involved in building raised beds made from upcycled materials, constructing a greenhouse and creating a site development and planting plan which includes lots of areas to help pollinators and other creatures, as well as providing food for humans!

Beyond our allotment project, other things we have done include

We’ve planted hedgerow in the community garden to provide food and shelter for birds and insects. We held two sessions on the banks of the River Hull and Humber Estuary to learn about birds and fish and how the waterways around the city are important migration routes for many species.

Students have taken part in several Community Habitat Creation Days around the city, building bat boxes and sowing a mini-meadow at Timebank’s community centre in Marfleet and planting native spring bulbs and making up seagrass seed bags to support the Wilder Humber programme at the West Hull Community Hub at West Hull Rugby Club.

We’ve built an environmental focus into our literacy lessons, encouraging learners to discuss issues such as climate change, plastic pollution, and look at what actions families and individuals can take to reduce their impact on the planet.

We’ve explored topics including marine pollution, flooding, street trees and species migration, and have incorporated practical actions into lessons, such as carrying out a beach clean at Flamborough.

We went bird watching and helped with willow coppicing at North Cave wetlands – this is helpful as part of the habitat management at the site. Working as part of a joint initiative with Freedom Festival Trust and We Live Here, some of our students have recently taken part in a national project linking art and nature – as part of this they explored green spaces in and around Hull alongside ecologists and artists, and together explored what nature means to them and how it is linked to wellbeing and community; they created poems, videos and living artworks that symbolised their feelings, memories and concerns and these were displayed on screens and billboards in the centre of the city as part of Hull Freedom Festival.

We’ve designed and built a bench-planter next to the classroom. This came about as students wanted somewhere to sit while watching sports on the nearby pitches, but also wanted to create something that helped wildlife.

Has your group empowered or involved others as part of your journey?

We always involve our students in all stages of our projects. For example, when we secured access to the land near to our classrooms we held regular discussion groups where students, staff and volunteers worked together to plan what we would like to achieve.

We have also pursued learning visits and partnership projects based on the interests and concerns expressed by students – the big tree planting scheme at Castle Hill was something we joined forces with the Environment Agency to get involved in as a response to students telling us about their fears around climate change and their desire to plant trees to help make an impact in alleviating this. Listening and being responsive in this way not only gives them more ownership of our activities, but also provides an opportunity for them to have purposeful discussions in English.

What differences for people have you noticed as a result of your actions?

The beauty of learning English is that it can be done doing just about anything! As part of our partnership with Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, we are using this opportunity to give people the chance to explore nature, engage with environmental issues and be more active and social, whilst improving their language skills. Students are keen to teach others about nature and climate change in their home countries and find out more about wildlife in the UK. Many of our students are from farming backgrounds and are now living in deprived inner-city locations. Many are suffering from poor mental health. Our sessions enable them to be aware of, enjoy and take action for nature on their doorstep, and further afield when opportunities arise. The bench planter will help people to enjoy sitting outdoors as part of our lessons, instead of always having to learn in the classroom; birdwatching for the first time has given people a lasting interest in protecting birds, and discussions we have had in the classroom and trips into nature have alerted people to the plight of wildlife and taught them things they can do to make a difference.

Have you faced any challenges or barriers in taking your action for wildlife?

Outdoor activities in the British winter don’t appeal to all of our students, who have mostly come from hot countries! During the colder months we tend to focus more on classroom-based sessions about nature and the environment. Because the vast majority of our students can’t communicate well (or at all!) in English, we have to get creative to ensure this isn’t a barrier for participating in classroom sessions or outdoor activities. We try to do this by:

• Making sure there are students present who can act as informal interpreters for other students.
• Designing worksheets, with pictures and simple explanations. Advertising sessions (via WhatsApp) with posters with pictures and very simple English, accompanied by text which can be put into a translator.
• Our students are mostly refugees and asylum seekers, and this means that they are often transient.

Frequently a student has become very involved with a project only to suddenly be moved to another city by the Home Office. We have kept in touch with some of these students and advised them on similar opportunities in their local area, but it does present a challenge in terms of creating consistent, long-term projects.

What have been your favourite nature moments or encounters with wildlife as part of your journey so far?

When we first started the project, I envisaged only people interested in wildlife participating in the partnership. However, there has been something for everyone! We found that students wanted to join in activities, without having a particular interest in wildlife. For example, students helped with making the seat planter because they are good at design, interpreting, serving snacks, organising, physical work, making worksheets or gardening.

Everyone made a meaningful contribution in their own way. Someone was good at each of: designing; carpentry; making a worksheet; interpreting; leading; tidying providing refreshments and even keeping a good conversation going! And through participation, many students developed an interest in wildlife. We have seen people finding frogs on site visits, delighting in photographing butterflies, and just enjoying walking through meadows and feeling free of their troubles for a short while. Nature provides us with so much!