Congratulations to our English GCSE learner

Congratulations to our English GCSE learner for achieving grade 7. Here's what they have to say about studying for their English GCSE with Kent Adult Education.

"At the beginning of the course, I felt totally lost, I didn't understand anything as most notions were so new, almost absurd, that I felt I could never make it.

I had to wrap my mind around a completely new language, mentality and way of seeing things, so it took a while for me to just understand 5% of the course. Writing even one paragraph of creative writing would take me 2 hours, and I'm not exaggerating as I could barely understand the requirements for each exercise.

Yet my tutor was very encouraging and even if I felt this was an impossible task, as I was never required to write creatively or in emotive language when I did my A Levels (baccalaureate) abroad, not at the level required in the UK, I keep on pushing, feeling I'm like a blind person walking in the dark, on a rainy day, but someone is telling them "keep going, you are doing great".

A year ago, reading a page from a novel in English, seemed like a huge tiring effort. Now I'm reading with ease daily. I got a taste of it and the confidence, and I reached the point when it became a relaxing and pleasurable experience.

I started reading Shakespeare, I even went to see a play, my first at the Globe and I was amazed by the public knowledge of the play text, and the mental gymnastics that listening to such a complex text requires. The public reaction was amazing, and it made me admire even more the long cultural tradition that Britain has.

Thank you for keeping the lessons light and cheerful and having such a trusting and kind attitude towards all of us, mostly immigrants, and our scared and insecure attempts to express ourselves. This kind attitude helped immensely to overcome the insecurity of writing and speaking in a new language. I never felt any kind of condescendence or masked superiority attitude on your part and this was a lesson in British Values which are respect and fair treatment of all.

Today I feel I have a new hope and desire to create new projects and a chance to retrain and maybe one day have a career here if conditions permit. Hope is a very complex emotion and is not easy to keep nurturing, but your course and the result I got, made it feel for the first time, I can start over, and my professional life is not doomed."

Congratulations again to our learner for all their achievements.