The English Classroom Story

Encouragement, perseverance and real feedback

Three ingredients that I believe make the difference when you are learning something new are encourgement, perseverance and real feedback.

Why these three particularly? To get started most of us need a bit of cajouling to believe that we are capable of learning something new, then it’s down to us to show a bit of mettle. We have to persevere because if this is a new skill, it’s going to take some effort isn’t it? And finally, we need to know how we are doing. We need to know what ‘s working and what isn’t and how to improve. Real feedback does this.

And these three qualities have been intrinsic to The English Classroom’s story too.

Like most businesses now, The English Classroom started out on a laptop in my kitchen. In my case teaching English business communication skills over Skype. It grew and I moved into my local co-working area. In the beginning it was an English School for non-native speakers looking for professional development, hence the name.

It quickly became obvious that the incredibly talented, brave and ambitious people, the potential leaders of our future, that I was coaching were quaking in their boots when it came to speaking in front of others! And that this lack of confidence in their communication skills was a potentially lethal block to their talents.

So I set up a speaking club in a pub for those brave enough to face the fear and become confident public speakers.

Et voilà Confident Speakers was born!

The club grew and became a mix of native and non-native speakers all with the shared ambition of becoming more confident and considerate communicators. And I can only describe as alchemy what happened next which is why Confident Speakers is now a well-being programme that helps people working remotely re-connect with natural, authentic communication whether it is online, remote or in-person.