A documented standard · Established 2026
I have taught English in Italy, the Dominican Republic and Wales. Almost nobody got stuck on the grammar.
They got stuck when somebody said whenever you're ready and they could not tell whether that was kindness or impatience.
RISEA is the materials and the written standard for that gap. It teaches the unwritten social rules of British life by decoding what people say and what they actually mean. It is trauma-informed, it is culturally intelligent, and it is pitched at CEFR A1–B1.
Your own tutors and staff use it. I write it, and I keep it current. I am a Cambridge English Examiner-trained teacher, registered with the Education Workforce Council, and I still teach in a South Wales secondary school. You will always know who you are dealing with.
Read Chapter 1 now Information for buyers
No form. No download. Chapter 1 opens in your browser.
- What it is
- Licensed learning materials and a certification standard
- Who delivers it
- Your own staff. RISEA supplies the materials.
- Level
- CEFR A1–B1
- Certification
- £500, £1,500 or £3,000 a year
- Procurement
- Below every threshold that requires a tender
- Author
- Lynda Smart, Pontypridd
If you buy for an organisation
Colleges, councils and employers
Every tier sits below the threshold at which your organisation has to run a tender. Education and training fall under the light touch regime, and most authorities can buy on a quote alone.
The buyer information carries our legal and VAT position, the data processing agreement, the accessibility statement, our social value commitments and how to raise a purchase order.
Open the buyer informationIf you are learning English
Arriving in the UK
Chapter 1 is free and open to everybody. It covers the first food and drink you will buy here — at the airport, at the till, in the shop.
The English you will actually hear stays in English, so that you recognise it when somebody says it to you. Everything that explains it is written as simply as we can manage.
Start readingA worked example, from Chapter 1
This is what a page of it actually does.
Not a description of the method. The method, on a real phrase, from the chapter you can read in full on this site right now.
Chapter 1 · At the counter
What they say
Whenever you're ready
What it means
It sounds like an invitation to take your time. In a shop or a café it usually means the opposite — the person is ready, and would like you to be ready too. It is not a complaint, and it is not rude. It is how British staff hurry you politely.
What you can say back
- One moment, please.
- Sorry, could you repeat that slowly?
The English phrases stay in English in every language edition, because that is the English the learner will hear said to them. Everything explaining it is in their own language.
The bilingual model
The English they will actually hear stays in English.
Everything around it — the explanation, the cultural decoding, the reassurance — is in the learner's own language. The phrase itself is not translated, because a translated phrase is no use at a till. They have to recognise the sound of the real one.
Stated plainly
What this is not
This is the part a marketing site leaves out. It is here because you would find it out anyway, and because you should be able to check what we claim against what we do not.
- Not an accreditation. RISEA International authors and awards this standard. It is not a UKAS accreditation and it carries no regulator endorsement. We say so before you ask.
- Not immigration advice. Everything here is general published information and signposting. It is never advice about an individual case, because that is regulated and we are not regulated to give it.
- Not a grammar course. It teaches the unwritten social rules of daily British life. There are no verb tables in it.
- Not a replacement for funded ESOL provision. It is the daily-life and workplace layer that sits alongside it.
Where to go next
Read Chapter 1, or write to me with a question.
Licensed materials and a certification standard for communicating with newcomers and ESOL learners, at CEFR A1–B1. Certification is £500, £1,500 or £3,000 a year, and all three sit below the threshold at which your organisation would need to run a tender.