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Equality Trust CEO to Provide Keynote Talk at ‘Equality, Diversion and Inclusion’ Event
Dr Wanda Wyporska, CEO of the Equality Trust, will be the keynote speaker at one-day conference for PGCE Secondary trainees at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU). Dr Wyporska’s talk forms part of a wide array of activities to mark ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ week , this year taking place over 8th-12th February, during which the trainees will be working independently to research a topic of their choice. Stimulus materials, including films and podcasts have been provided. A group of trainees will be working directly with BGU academic Dr Sheine Peart and Museumand to produce teaching resources under the theme of Black Lives Matter. Alongside this, lead social workers from Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire are going to be talking to the trainee teachers to tell them what they'd like teachers to know and understand about their work. Looking ahead to the week’s events, Dr Jenny Wynn, Programme Leader for PGCE Secondary at BGU, discussed why it was such an important part of the course curriculum: “At Bishop Grossteste University our 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' week has been a sector-leading part of our PGCE course for a number of years. The week aims to support trainee teachers’ professional commitment to equality in education through enhancing their knowledge and understanding of diversity and inclusive teaching practices, to meet the needs of all pupils. It usually involves workshops and placements and is very much an in-person experience. Obviously, this year has to be different!” “We are making use of 'Padlet' as a platform for trainees to collate and present their projects at an on-line discussion forum on the Friday. Research, that we have recently published, has demonstrated the transformative nature of this final sharing part of the week - time to consolidate thoughts and feelings before deciding what actions are important to take forward.” To find out how you can create your own successes in our collaborative learning community, visit our website, speak to a member of our Enquiries Team or join us on one of our Open Days. -
"By choosing BGU you are doing more than just a degree, you are setting yourself up for life" - How studying at BGU started Jake's career in sport
I came to Bishop Grosseteste with the ambition of becoming a PE Teacher. BGU helped me achieve everything, and more, than I could have ever hoped for. During my three years studying Education Studies and Sport, I was able to gain my first experiences of what it would take to become a teacher. I was able to work in a variety of settings including a secondary school PE Department along with Primary and UTC college environments. The secondary placement in particular, reaffirmed to me that I was right in wanting to be a PE Teacher and chase my dream career. I was able to work alongside the entire PE department, assisting in delivering lessons, running extra-curricular clubs and gaining experience across different Key Stages. The modules allowed me to learn about educational philosophies and different pedagogical approaches to teaching, which allowed me to form my own style of teaching. The wealth of experience the lecturers have meant you could be challenged but also challenge them on contemporary issues and have a high-level discussion about what is happening in the world of sport and education. I was able to achieve a first-class honours degree and I felt like I earnt my degree as the level of scrutiny and academic rigor made sure you get what you put into each assessment. My favourite module though was when I got to complete my dissertation. I used my dissertation as preparation for my PGCE at Loughborough University. I was able to interview many PE teachers across the country about the feasibility of a Models-Based Practice being adopted in a PE curriculum. Rafe Elliot, my sport lecturer was always there to give me advice and support throughout. To this day, my dissertation is my proudest piece of work. -
Participatory Autism Research Symposium
Bishop Grosseteste University’s LORIC Autism Ideas Café and the Participatory Autism Research Collective (PARC) are pleased to announce details of their joint event to be held on 24th March 2021. -
English Department provides ‘A Night in With Shakespeare’ for BGU students
The ongoing period of COVID-19 has created a number of challenges to the Higher Education experience of students and staff across the country. At Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) the English Department Team have risen to the task of finding innovative and adaptive ways for students to interact and learn socially as Dr Amy Albudri, Lecturer in English at BGU, explains: -
‘Fantastic work’ sees Carers Award Re-Accredited for Second Year
At the start of 2020 Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) was delighted to be a awarded a Carers Quality Award by Every-One, the carers’ charity. Just over a year on from that achievement, the “fantastic work” of those involved in carers support at BGU has seen the award re-accredited for a second year. The teams driving carers awareness and support have been working on a number of innovative initiatives over the last year including: Carers passportsPull up carers bannerCarers pin badgesCarers newsletter (which has a number of opportunities for staff and students to get involved)Carers videos have also been produced with staff and students highlighting the support offered by the carer’s community at BGU The goal of all of these initiatives has been to promote a Carers community where inclusivity of staff and student carers is a priority as Leanne McHugh, Senior Lecturer in Health and Social Care at BGU, who leads the overall project, explains: “Having a robust system in place where annually the 5 standards of the Carers Quality Award are reviewed ensures the sustainability and longevity of the projects. This was the first year we have been through the re-assessment process where evidence was required against each area of the standards criteria. As the carer’s initiatives have grown from strength to strength, we welcomed this opportunity. Being offered this platform to share our developments and new initiatives since our first recognition enabled best practice to be shared with others, building network of Carers support across Lincolnshire.” And the group’s efforts, in addition to achieving re-accreditation, also received high praise from Julie Goy, Quality Development Lead Every-one.org.uk: “What fantastic work you continue to do to support Carers at BGU, just amazing” To find out how you can get involved with the ongoing Carers projects at BGU, contact Leanne McHugh at Leanne.mchugh@bishopg.ac.uk To find out how you can create your own successes in our collaborative learning community, visit our website, speak to a member of our Enquiries Team or join us on one of our Open Days. -
BGU Lecturers suggest improved disaster risk reduction policy for Bangladesh
Bangladesh has more than 700km of coastline within the Bay of Bengal (BoB). It is a low-lying flood plain and high population density country. Due to the geographical location and topography, any cyclonic activities on BoB and beyond on it, on the Indian Ocean, impact on the coastal communities in Bangladesh. (Below photo: Approximate origin and path of severe tropical cyclone Amphan on May 2020) -
Autism Ideas Café Update January 2021
The first Autism Ideas Café event of 2021 welcomed new faces and led to some lively on-line discussions. Each event held so far has been unique, with a different mix of attendees made up of academics, professionals, students, members of the autistic community and their allies. What makes each event special is the views, knowledge and experience that each attendee brings, as well as the diversity of topics of discussion. The January session included musings on the need for researchers to communicate their research findings so that they are relevant, easily accessible, and relatable to real life situations, as well as discussions around a number of autism related issues. Employment: How can employers be more inclusive? How can their awareness of autism be raised? The importance of making workplace adjustments. Understanding what employers can gain from having a neuro-diverse workforce. How can research be used to support the increased employment of autistic individuals? Diagnosis: How can adults on the spectrum get a diagnosis? Should they pursue one? What difference does it make? Do the diagnosis rates in boys and girls actually reflect the incidence of autism? Are girls on the spectrum treated differently? Do they get diagnosed with other issues instead? The experience of girls and women on the spectrum: How do autistic women cope with the hormonal and physical changes of puberty and menopause? Are girls more likely to mask their autism? Does this manifest in mental health issues such as depression or eating disorders? Are girls as likely as boys to have a “special” interest? Are these seen as hobbies? Autism and parenting: Being an autistic parent. How does late diagnosis of parents affect children? If a parent gets an adult diagnosis does that affect the child? Do autistic parents parent differently? How can parents empower their autistic children? How can parents meet the sensory needs of their children? Many of these themes will be explored in the March Autism Ideas Cafe event, which will be in the format of a research symposium, including presentations of their current research by PhD and Master's students from BGU. Details TBC. -
Autism Ideas Cafe Update - December 2020
LORIC Autism Ideas Cafe goes online -
Crafting the future unwritten: Winners announced in short story competition
‘Water is Thicker than Blood’ by Sophie Harrison as been awarded first place in the Bishop Grosseteste University English Department 'The Future Unwritten' short story competition. Designed to bring together GCSE and A-level students with a passion for creative writing, and inspired by one of our undergraduate modules, the competition tasked entrants with crafting a short story that speculated about the future. Submissions included imagining of new realities and new identities, adaptions and transformations of our current world and covered a wide range of genres including dystopian fiction, science fiction, fantasy and horror. Speaking as they choose the winners, the judging panel, made up of lecturers from BGU's Department of English, recognized by The Sunday Times and The Guardian as among the top thirty in the UK, praised the high quality and diverse variety of entrants: "Thank you to the many who were able to enter their short stories. We were delighted to receive such an engaging range of submissions for the inaugural short story competition and it is very encouraging to witness the creative passion of these young people. We look forward to building on this success to promote the talent of young writers, starting with a new competition in 2022." -
Perceptions of Death in Collective Memory: Numbers | Spaces | Texts (2021-22)
Research by Sibylle Erle Death is an abstract concept. I have always been interested in Death; not because I am morbid but because I want to live a better life. Having co-organized Academic and Creative Responses to Death and Dying (since 2017) with Peter Green at BGU, I realised that I needed to move on as well as back into my own discipline. I wanted to contemporize my interest in Death, which is rooted in the Romantic period where it connects to my research on Mary Wollstonecraft, Joanna Baillie and Mary Shelley. This is how it happened. In conversation with Dr Makrina Agaoglou, from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (ICMAT) in Madrid, I realised how Mathematics could inform and teach non-mathematicians about how mathematical modelling can give some inside information on what is happening and if and how outcomes can be predicted. Sophie Ungerer a London-based architect and designer working at the University of Brighton, on the other hand, showed me how COVID-19 has affected the way we move in our minds and through our cities, including the spaces designated for preoccupation with death, such as graveyards, (makeshift) morgues or memorials. In my head I quickly moved from “What is the maths behind the current pandemic?” to “How should we inhabit public spaces – as well as the intimate space between us”. Our project seeks to explore the perceptions of death in the context of COVID-19 and how they were affected by the pandemic. COVID-19 has been represented by mathematical graphs describing a global phenomenum, that are abstract and not always easily processed by the public; the data, moreover, is counterpointed by a plethora of individual stories about loss, mental health and lockdowns. Yet, though the threat of death is omni-present and has shaped our societies and lives irreversibly, many still have not experienced death first-hand. Death is well-documented in the public eye, but all too often the dying had to die alone to ensure the safety of their loved ones and related communities. This disconnect - between the public and the private - has to do with how we process ‘the facts‘. Through our project we want to take stock of how the current situation is poised; it is not about knowing or not knowing, it is rather to do with accepting or rejecting ‘the facts‘. Using interdisciplinary collaboration, we aim to explore the perceptions of death: from the abstract, for the general public, the parameters that affect the spreading of the virus and thus define social distancing, to how empirical experience of death may be represented in text and space. Our project is funded by AlumNode (a collaboration between the Heidelberg Laureate Forum Foundation (HLFF) and the German Scholars Organization (GSO), funded by the Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS). Facts rarely produce empathy; and this is where the TEXT (Literature) comes in. For any information contact Sibylle Erle, FRSA, FHEA, who is Reader in English Literature and lead of RKEU Literature and Literacies. She teaches on the English programmes as well as on MA Children’s Literature and Literacies. Our first event on 2 November brings together Speakers from different disciplines who will explore ‘Death’ from different angles: we will have short presentations, a round table and a creative workshop; This will be lead by artist Marina White Raven, who I have been working with since the first Lockdown on a story titled, 'What did you do during lockdown?' - Find out more about that story here. What remains? Each point or number on those graphs holds its own story. Is it personal stories that will compete with the trends in the formation of the collective memory of the time we are now living through? How do we perceive, construct as well as represent Death in our daily lives? For details: https://www.icmat.es/congresos/2021/PDM-NST/index.php To register: https://predictiondeathmemory.eventbrite.co.uk
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