Azize prepared a delicious meal which is often served on important occasions and is a regional speciality: Kabune Pilav.

On Monday 19th January, we welcomed three visitors from the Library Services: Kim, Daniel and Antonio.

On Tuesday 2nd and Friday 5th December, EAL learners and friends of Richmond EAL collected £575 for our charity by joining Santa in Twickenham under the umbrella of Twickenham upon Thames Rotary Club.

In November Petra Cox from Habitats and Heritage came to two Monday classes and gave us all a fascinating glimpse into the history of managing London’s sewage! This included some shocking details about the situation before the arrival of the wonderful Joseph Bazalgette who completely transformed the management of sewage in the rapidly increasing population of London in the late nineteenth century.

Prepare a dish to donate if you can and join us on Friday 21st November, 4-6pm at ETNA, to try festive foods from around the world!

Join us 10am-12.30pm to hear from guest speakers on various topics related to education and employment.

An enjoyable, casual walk and talk around Mortlake streets led by Pam McMillen. We hope to enjoy many more walks as the seasons change.

Daniel O'Sullivan visited our Thursday class at ETNA last week and encouraged several of our learners to get help to find a job and to get long term support for employment. The difference between this help and the help available at Job Centres, is that it is one to one help for as long as necessary. It is a new FREE service and learners should register with Ruth or Rebecca if they are interested so they can be referred to Daniel. Daniel promises to respond to everyone within two working days! You can see the happy faces during Daniel's visit in the following photos...

Thanks to everyone who attended our celebration on Sunday 6th July, 12pm to 4pm at the ETNA Centre. Read about our recent parties below, and please send us any more photos and videos of the latest or previous events.

Ming met May through Richmond EAL, and they have become friends through shared community activities. They often join local events together and enjoy engaging with UK culture, such as watching tennis at Wimbledon.

Celebrating Richmond's sanctuary-seeking and migrant communities and their contributions to our borough's rich, multicultural life.

Moon brought along a huge feast for us all to share as well as preparing her fried noodles dish which was very popular. Kenneth taught everyone how to use chopsticks correctly and we all enjoyed naming the ingredients and doing a quiz together and then telling each other the names of kitchen utensils and equipment in our home languages. These were: Cantonese, Mandarin, Turkish, Hungarian, Russian, Ukrainian, Farsi/Dari and Japanese! It was a very jolly occasion and we now have to wait until October for our next EAL healthy cooking club session.....

Maggie prepared two recipes from Hong Hong for us. One was smashed cucumber and the other one was ginger and egg fried rice. Everybody joined in with the cooking - and eating! We had 17 participants speaking the following 11 home languages: Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Tamil, Korean, Russian and Ukrainian!

Seven learners enjoyed a wonderfully sunny spring morning to visit the exhibition of Mingzhang Sun's work at the Orleans House Gallery and then to walk along the river. The languages spoken were: Hungarian, Tamil, Spanish, Russian,Ukrainian and Cantonese. Everybody chatted with each other and the time flew by and suddenly we realised that three hours had passed!

Five learners enjoyed the beautiful weather on our Walk & Talk last week. Masha introduced us to the wonderful York House Gardens and to her favourite tree which was in full bloom. This mimosa tree is not only the symbol of the arrival of spring in Russia but also the flower used to celebrate International Women's Day on the 8th of March! We were delighted to see the attached information board produced by Alison Greenwood of the Dose of Nature charity.

Masha prepared a most unusual and delicious recipe for us called: 'Herring under a Fur Coat'! 16 enthusiastic learners attended this popular workshop.

39 learners and volunteers enjoyed fantastic weather and a wonderful visit to the Orchid Festival at Kew which this year celebrated orchids from Peru.

On Wednesday 29th January, Valentina from CAR (Citizens Advice Richmond), gave us a talk about their services and handed out some leaflets.

Our New Year Festive Food Swap on 16th January was a very jolly occasion with wonderful food, which was all consumed with enthusiasm!

Here are some of our lovely WFSC Volunteers

Many thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund for awarding us £20,000 on 15 November 2024.

On a visit to Marble Hill House

On Thursday 12th September, we hosted the first EAL Healthy Cooking Club of the new school year. Sevdiye, a newly enrolled learner, cooked a wonderful healthy traditional Turkish recipe for the 16 participants plus the three Office staff. 

We had a great trip to Kew Gardens with 19 participants speaking Cantonese, Arabic, Portuguese, Turkish, Quechua, Spanish, Ukrainian, Russian, Bashkir, Tatar, Bengali, Armenian, Japanese and Thai. We had perfect weather for a change!

On 6th June we visited the Kitchen Garden at Marble Hill Park and Moon had her successful interview with Harrison (Manager) and now has received her uniform and started her volunteering post!

Our team of wonderful learners, trustees and volunteers set up and ran a stall at the May Fair selling great food prepared and donated by our learners and others.

After a delightful walk in the spring sunshine, through the park and the Orleans Woods, we visited the current exhibition at the Stables Gallery, (part of Orleans House Gallery).

We celebrated the first day of spring (21st March) by visiting the Kitchen Garden in Marble Hill Park and chatting with Mike, one of the volunteers.

On Wednesday 13th March, Michelle Wheeler from the Mulberry Centre gave us a most informative presentation about this important charity.

Ruth, our CEO, was invited to write an article about our charity for the 50th anniversary edition of the BERA (British Educational Research Association) magazine under the theme Unheard Voices.

Thirteen EAL learners, speaking the following languages, joined our trip to the Orchid Festival at Kew Gardens on Monday: ARABIC, CANTONESE, KURDISH, TURKISH, RUSSIAN, UKRAINIAN and JAPANESE.

Jonathan and Antonette created a wonderful Sri Lankan mutton and vegetable soup recipe for our January EAL Healthy Cooking Club.

Thanks to the NHS Winter Engagement Programme, we were able to share important health advice and information to our learners in class.

Happy Holidays!