Online, Class, Work, Home
English For Your Staff
ESOL Home Tutoring
About ELPNZ
Stories & Learning Materials
We are a not-for-profit and we teach English to migrants and people with a refugee background at 21 language centres around Aotearoa New Zealand and online.
The organisation we know today as English Language Partners began in 2009, but our history stretches back to the 1970sand is connected to New Zealand’s own story of growing migrant communities.
The 1970s in New Zealand saw a large increase in the number of non-English speaking people coming to live in here, especially from Asia and the Pacific. Local educators in Hawke’s Bay, Wellington and Auckland saw that new migrants wanted English lessons, but many were women unable to attend classes because of childcare responsibilities. The idea of home tutoring was born.
Home tutor volunteers continue to play an incredibly vital role in our organisation – showing up to support new migrants not just with English language skills but with social opportunities and cultural experiences unique to New Zealand.
Throughout the 1980s, groups of volunteers worked independently around the country. Then in 1992 the National Association of ESOL Home Tutor Schemes (Inc.) was formed to coordinate home tutoring across New Zealand. In 1994 the association achieved Charitable Trust status.
A major focus in the 1990s became the development of formal training programmes for the volunteers.
In 2009, the many language centres around New Zealand joined together under the new name, English Language Partners New Zealand.
We have continued to expand our programmes – going beyond home tutoring to include a wide variety of English language classes taught by experienced teachers.
You can read more about our early history in a book celebrating home tutoring.
Settlement Through English: a history of ESOL home tutors (PDF)
“Kotahi te kohao o te ngira e kuhuna ai te miro ma, te miro pango, te miro whero. I muri, kia mau ki te aroha, ki te ture, ki te whakapono.”
“Through the eye of the needle pass the white threads, the black threads, and the red threads. Afterwards, looking to the past as you progress, hold firmly to your love, the law, and your faith.”
This whakatauki was gifted by the late Tamehana Tai Rakena of Tainui to individual leaders in the disability, and then wider community sector to support us in our work. It originated with Potatau Te Wherowhero, the first Maori King, who, at the birth of the Kingitanga movement, spoke of strength and beauty through both unity and diversity, by alluding to the beauty and the strength of the woven tukutuku. Individual threads are weak, but the process of weaving makes a strong fabric. Individual colours tell no story, but woven together they become beautiful, and can tell a story.
Former refugees and migrants settle well and succeed in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Our vision is a cohesive society where our learners can settle well and achieve their goals. This includes feeling safe, a sense of belonging and being able to participate in and contribute to all aspects of life (social, economic, cultural and political).
We help people learn English to settle, work and succeed.
We teach English to people from refugee and migrant backgrounds, providing excellent English language education in context for everyday life and work.
Diversity: we are welcoming
Aotearoa New Zealand has become a very diverse country, with people from all cultures settling here, enriching our lives, neighbourhoods and communities. Everyone is equally welcome.
Respect: we care, listen and respond
We have many ways to show respect. In many cultures, it is customary to remove one’s shoes before entering a home. Doing so, regardless of one’s own culture and preferences, is a sign of respect. The world runs better
with respect.
Partnership: we work together for success
Working in partnership allows people to co-operate. By talking through ideas, and working side by side, we can achieve much more together than alone. Whether we work together as a couple, a group or a whole society, using language well is the key to our success. Let’s talk about working together.
Excellence: we value our work and aim high
At English Language Partners, we want to be the best in the world at what we do, which means setting ambitious goals and reaching them. Being a Kiwi means achieving triumphs.
Strategy 2030 sets our strategic direction for the next five years (2025-2029). It describes three strategic goals and four enablers to support delivery of the goals.
We are on a journey to further embed bicultural and multicultural practices at ELP. We aspire to be a place where everyone’s mana is respected, and Te Tiriti o Waitangi is upheld.
Te Ara Ahurea includes our strategic vision, our acknowledgements and commitments and strategic outcomes.
It was developed in 2024 in consultation with staff, the staff rōpū and with input from external advisors.
Our teaching and learning strategy describes how we maintain our teaching and learning quality standards. The strategy helps us to maintain consistency across all the programmes we teach.
We reviewed our strategy in 2023 to align it with the Tertiary and International Learners Code of Practice and to reflect changes in our own teaching and learning practice.
