“IT’S COME together against the odds because God’s been in it” is how tutor Kathryn Guille describes her literacy class. Kathryn had always wanted to teach. “I wanted to help people - to fi nd work, to improve their basic skills, to build their confidence - to reach their potential,” she explains.

The dream started small in 2001 with voluntary work on an ESOL course. Then came one-to-one help with reading, writing and spelling, voluntary group work in community centres and an initial certificate in teaching Basic Skills Literacy. Eventually, in September 2003, Kathryn established a course at the Jesus Centre for drop-in clients.

The next hurdle was finding a placement for a City and Guilds Certificate in FE Teaching: “Normally, you are sent on a course by your employer; I put myself forward. The Jesus Centre was accepted as my placement. So, informal teaching became a formal, externally assessed course.”

Then she applied to Coventry City Council for a tutor’s post: “I got it plus they approached me about them becoming providers of the Jesus Centre course. I had prayed a lot about this but did not feel I could raise it myself.

So the course I set up without a teaching background was taken under the Council's wing, meaning we have books, tapes, expert advice/monitoring and more at our disposal."

The class includes those at pre-GCSE level, asylum seekers, people with learning difficulties and those with mental health problems. “Catering for differences can be a challenge!” says Kathryn. “You need to get to know people – to find out their motivation and what they want to achieve.”

Students can enter for nationally-recognised qualifications or be awarded Certificates of Achievement at the end of the academic year: “One asylum seeker has entered for City and Guilds Entry Level Reading and Writing. He could hardly read or write at all: now he can read short text and understand local signs. And two students with learning difficulties have gone from not being able to write their name to being able to write a sentence independently.”

Kathryn’s manager at Coventry Adult Education presented certificates to the students at the end of the year and commented on the marked improvements she saw. Of one, she said: “You’ve done wonders with him.”

Most class members are affiliated to the church, and two have been baptised. “The course has been a means of drawing people in who would have been on the edges,” explains Kathryn.

In the pipeline are a numeracy class and a confidence-building course.

The literacy class, which has been an affirmation of Kathryn’s dream to teach, has had a surprise outcome for her too: “I’m finding my personal potential in helping other people reach theirs!”