ESOL students collaborate with local schools to produce animated films

The videos were showcased in front of the Lord Mayor of York Martin Rowley in College’s Jorvik Suite.

They featured manga-inspired illustrations by students following a series of creative sessions, delivered by Greg’s New Visuality charity and funded by Knaresborough-based, non-profit organisation Better Connect’s Rise2Thrive Trailblazer programme.

Pupils from York High and All Saints Roman Catholic schools transformed the drawings into moving images with the films entitled “Angels of Aspiration” and “Angels of Reading.”

York College’s ESOL course provides education for people who are intending to become, long-term UK residents with the beginners group in this class encompassing students that have come to the country from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen.

The art initiative harnessed the course’s learning objectives, as overseen by York College ESOL Coordinator Tilly Dickenson and tutor Laura Khaddi.

Commenting on the success of the collaborative venture, Greg said: “The warm welcome I received from the ESOL tutors and the sense of fun and creativity from the students themselves ensured that the programme 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.”

All Saints pupil Isla, a New Visuality art advocate who has worked with children across the city, added: “We retrieved the illustrations from the ESOL students and intervened with a few tweaks, whether that was adding colour in the traditional way – with watercolour paint, felt tips and pencils – or incorporating digital elements. What has been game changing for me and the team is the sudden advancements in AI innovation.

“We have been using Grok and Adobe’s Lightroom and Firefly to breathe animation into the students’ initial illustrations and the results have been superb.”

Explaining the use of “Angels” as a unifying theme, Greg pointed out: “York is a UNESCO City of Media Arts, the only one of its kind in the UK. Viborg, in Denmark, is a Media Arts city, too, and they threw down a brief to the 27 Media Arts cities from across the world of ‘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 decided to hand the steering wheel to York College’s ESOL students who have responded with style, wit and sensitivity.”

The “Angels of Aspiration” film features a series of animations based on people, places and items in modern life that bring hope to the ESOL students, while the “Angels of Reading” video was timed to coincide with the Department for Education and National Literacy Trust’s National Year of Reading and incorporates art based on the learners’ new reading habits following their arrival in the UK.

The launch of the films was also attended by York College Principal & Chief Executive Ken Merry with the Lord Mayor declaring: “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 while facilitating learning.”

ESOL Coordinator Tilly said: “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, whilst 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.”

To learn more about York College's ESOL course, please click here

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