‘Phenomenal’ growth by ESU Malta

Tuesday 27 December 2011

In early December, Eamon Chawke, Schools Programmes Office and Annette Fisher, Head of International, travelled out from Dartmouth House to support the development of one our newest ESUs, ESU Malta.

Eamon and Annette worked with school students in both Malta and its branch in Gozo and were very impressed with the increase in standard from 2010 to 2011. The two schools that the Gozo branch currently work with had improved by leaps and bounds. The girl’s secondary school debate club now meets three times a week in break times to practice and increase their skills and the volunteers from the Gozo branch have been working with the Centre for Further Learning (sixth form college) to form a debate club and hold practice debates.

In Malta, Eamon and Annette advised volunteers from ESU Malta’s Arm of Support Programme on how they can integrate ‘Expression and Delivery’ exercises into their current workshops. ESU Malta’s Arm of Support Programme matches native-English speaking volunteers with primary school students in areas of Malta where English does not have a high prevalence in order to improve their confidence in the language.

Eamon and Annette also delivered training to participants of ESU Malta’s debating and public speaking competition with the assistance of the University debate club volunteers who work regularly with the participants in the run-up to the competition.

During the training programme, ESU staff were interviewed on Maltese television and by Maltese English-language newspapers. ESU Malta has received impressive press coverage since they launched and this has led to an increase in numbers of students participating in their programmes.

Please see here for the article which appeared in the Malta Independent.