ESOL ART

ESOL ART VOL. 1

CREATIVITY

Confidence and Culture

MAGAZINE

TESCO

Decorating the windows for a community

ANGELS OF ART Exploring Aspirations

YORK COLLEGE

THE LORD MAYOR OF YORK VISITS ESOL Funded by Better Connect's Trailblazing programme, York charity New Visuality has been running creative outreach activities with York College's ESOL department.

Charity director Greg McGee has planned a series of sessions that incrementally introduce new creative skills whilst harnessing the course's learning objectives in close collaboration with course tutors Laura Khaddi and Tilly Dickenson. These skills include research, illustration and collaboration with York schools, including pupils from York High and All Saints RC Sixth Form. Says Greg, "The warm welcome I've received by the ESOL tutors and the sense of fun and creativity from the students themselves have ensured that the programme has far outreached itself in terms of the quality I initially envisaged.

Drawing skills have improved and the students from local schools and colleges have expressed gratitude that they've been given such good source material to work with."

Isla from All Saints, a New Visuality art advocate who has worked with children all over York, explains the process, "We retrieve the illustrations from the ESOL students and we intervene with a few tweaks, whether colour in the traditional way - watercolour paint, felt tips, pencils - or we incorporate digital elements. What has been gamechanging for me and the team is the sudden advancements in AI innovation. We have been using Grok, Adobe's Lightroom, Adobe's Firefly to breathe animation into the students' initial illustrations, and the results have been superb."

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FEBRUARY 2026

MEMORIES & ASPIRATIONS

YORK COLLEGE’S ESOL STUDENTS WELCOMED THE LORD MAYOR

Two animated films based on 'Angels of Aspiration' and 'Angels of Reading' were created in a collaborative effort. Greg explains the use of 'Angels' as a unifying theme, "York is a UNESCO City of Media Arts, the only one of its kind in the UK. Denmark's Viborg too is a Media Arts City. It was Viborg who threw down a brief to the 27 Media Arts Cities from across the world: 'who is YOUR Angel of Hope'?

We thought that was a positive and provocative building block to start with.

We also thought that citywide conversations are rarely started or led by that city's most vulnerable citizens, so we thought we'd hand the steering wheel to York College's ESOL students who have responded with style, wit, and sensitivity."

'Angels of Aspiration' features a series of animations based on people, places, and items in modern life that bring hope to the ESOL students whilst 'Angels of Reading', timed to coincide with Department for Education and the National Literacy Trust's 'National Year of Reading', incorporates art based on new reading habits since arrival to the UK. Both films were launched at an event at York College attended by all students, teachers, Principal and Chief Executive Ken Merry and the Lord Mayor of York, Martin Rowley.

Says the Lord Mayor, "York College is going from strength to strength and its wonderful ESOL course is a testament to that. The use of creativity, both traditional and innovative, provides a huge boost for its learners and lets them tell their stories in an engaging way whilst facilitating learning."

Tilly Dickenson of ESOL says, "I’m incredibly proud that our ESOL students had the chance to be involved in such an inspiring project. It has given them a fantastic introduction to art and creative project work, while also helping them build confidence in their language skills. Seeing them express their ideas so thoughtfully, and watching those ideas grow into something so meaningful, has been incredibly rewarding.’

https://www.yorkcollege.ac.uk/study/english-for-speakers-of-other-languages-esol