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Lecturer Helps Develop New Risk Assessment Tool for Animal-Assisted Interventions
Dr Mirena Dimolareva, Lecturer in Psychology at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), together with colleagues and the University of Lincoln and Virginia Commonwealth University, USA has published a risk assessment tool for animal-assisted interventions in any settings. The tool is free to use for staff and practitioners nationally and internationally, in any setting (including education, nursing homes, hospitals) and aims to provide unified, standardised guidelines for animal-assisted therapy as well as animal-assisted interventions and activities. It is a comprehensive tool which takes into consideration the animal and human care and welfare. Speaking following the publication, Dr Dimolareva discussed what drove the research and what users could expect from the new tool: “Animal-Assisted Interventions in various settings have become extremely popular in recent years. Most often, therapy dog visits are organised for hospitals, nursing homes, schools and other educational settings with some scientific research showing beneficial effects. Other animals such as cats and reptiles also provide visits, but the beneficial effects are less known. As a new area of work and research there is lack of clarity around these visits and interventions. Furthermore, thorough risk assessments which consider all involved- the service users, staff, therapy animals and handlers are often overlooked. This free-to-use detailed Risk Assessment Tool was created to provide information on the risk related to Animal-Assisted Interventions as well as a Risk Assessment Template for any setting. The aim is to unify the field and thoroughly consider the safety and well-being of all involved. It is flexible and easy to use, providing the opportunity to incorporate procedures and protocols relevant to the different institutions hosting the animals and handlers.” The publication and attached tool is available for free by clicking here.. If you have a subject you’re passionate about exploring then BGU is perfect place for you to start. Find out about our supportive and collaborative learning environment, by visiting our website, booking onto one of our Open Events or by speaking to our Enquiries Team. -
BGU Academics Awarded €178,000 Erasmus Funding for Well-being Research
Academics from Bishop Grosseteste University’s (BGU) Well-being and Workload in Education RKEU group have been awarded 178,000 euro of Erasmus+ funding to research and develop the well-being of initial teacher education students. The group from BGU, who will be leading this international project, consists of Dr. Emma Clarke, Dr. Phil Wood, Shaun Thompson and Aimee Quickfall. They will be working with colleagues at the University of Eastern Finland and Kobenhavns Professionshojskole, University of Copenhagen. Aimee, who is Head of Programmes for Primary and Early Years at BGU, commented that: “It is great to be working with our Finnish and Danish colleagues again on a topic that is dear to all of us – the continued success and happiness of our teacher trainees.” The aim of the project is to produce a package of resources for ITE students, school mentors and university staff, including ‘well-being toolkits’ that will be tailored to Finnish, Danish and UK contexts. Shaun, who is Regional Partnership Lead at BGU explained this: “It is really important to consider different education systems and also the different people that need support with well-being. If a student struggles with their well-being during their training, mentors and university tutors also need resources to support their trainee in their context; on placement, in tutorials, at a distance and in person.” The project will run for three years and include events in all three countries to share findings with students, school mentors and initial teacher educators. Emma pointed out: “The project has a real activist aim – we want to improve the experiences of teacher trainees as widely as we can.” To that end, the project outcomes will include a website with free to access online resources, blogs and advice, as well as the toolkits for supporting trainee well-being. Phil explained that: “Although the toolkits and resources will be based on research carried out at BGU, UEF and Copenhagen, there will be useful materials and findings for teacher trainees, mentors and tutors in other contexts and countries.” If you’re interested in a future in education, our BA (Hons) Primary Education with QTS (3 year undergraduate degree), BA (Hons) Primary Teaching Studies with QTS (15 month top up degree), and PGCE courses are the perfect ways to begin or continue your adventure on the path to becoming a fantastic teacher! If you have any questions, our Enquiries Team are ready to help. Contact them today or visit our website to find out how to take your next steps. -
New Toolkit Aims to Help Students Build Resilience
by Linette Wallace - CELT Coordinator Student mental health and wellbeing have been of national focus for some time especially due to the growing rise in student mental ill-health in Higher Education (HE). With the recognition of this growing area of concern, positive interest in student resilience by the sector is on the rise. As a result, resilience and its associated characteristics are starting to inform several crucial HE interventions alongside the student experience; from peer learning to graduate attributes and curriculum design. At Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), the health, wellbeing and employability of our students are key considerations and our aim is to nurture strong, independent learners that develop into rounded individuals that can contribute positively to society. Whilst we do not dispute the need for additional counselling and specialist support where required, the BGU community have felt a more proactive, preventative approach must be a better way forward for students rather than waiting for any crisis point to be reached. Hence, we are delighted to announce that through the work of the Wellbeing Framework Steering Group and CELT, BGU students will now have access to an online Resilience Toolkit from mid-September 2020. This dovetails with a raft of other wellbeing support mechanisms we have in place for our students across campus, such as Student Advice and the Chaplaincy for example. The toolkit advocates a positive, proactive approach to resilience by providing students with key information, activities, mindfulness techniques, resources, and links to further areas of support. It has been designed so that students can use it as frequently as they wish and access it with ease, as it sits on the Virtual Learning Environment (BlackBoard) and is linked to/from many course and generalist areas. As is widely known, student retention, success and graduate outcomes are intrinsically linked to learners successfully overcoming any barriers that they face to achievement in HE, such as stress and anxiety. By utilising some of the tools on the toolkit, it is hoped, that students can improve upon their growth mindset which is crucial to the development and maintenance of their resilience. This, in turn, can help them optimise any conditions they face and any environment in which they are situated. Central to having this growth mindset, is the student’s ability to embrace and learn from failure and it can be argued that the concept of them acquiring grit, resilience and delayed gratification are all pivotal in them being able to set goals and develop a sense of comfort in waiting for longer-term results to be achieved. The toolkit is being added to on an ongoing basis and houses some free e-books, embedded video content, and will promote events/talks/online courses in the subject area. If you would like further information, or would like to share any resources that you feel will enhance the toolkit, please send information into CELT@bishopg.ac.uk. -
BGU English to Plot New Worlds in Celebration of the Humanities
The English team at Bishop Grosseteste University are celebrating the Humanities this November as part of the Being Human 2020 festival. Being Human is the UK’s national festival of the humanities led by the School of Advanced Study (University of London) in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy. As part of their contribution to the festival’s theme, ‘New Worlds’, the team are sharing the passion for the outdoors and literature of the environment of our staff and students with two virtual events: Plotting Outdoor Worlds Café on Friday 20th November 2020, 10:00am - 11.30am Plotting New Worlds Outdoors on Tuesday 24 November 10:00 - 12.00pm -
Free Archaeology Talks to Explore the Lives of American Airmen during the Second World War
Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), in collaboration with the 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum, are hosting a series of free talks on the United States Army Air Force during the Second World War. These talks form part of a larger project led by Dr Derwin Gregory, Programme Leader for Archaeology and Heritage at BGU, on the history and archaeology of the USAAF. The talks are free and open to the public, but registration is essential. 28 November – ‘The Archaeology of the Friendly Invasion’ 5 December – ‘We Have Come Home’: Pilgrimage, repatriation, and collective memory at the 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum, Thorpe Abbotts 12 December – ‘”They Treated Us Royally?”: The Experiences of Black Americans supporting the air war in Britain’ If you’re interested in studying Archaeology you can find out more about our courses on our website or through one of our virtual open events. The 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum has been dedicated for more than 40 years to preserving the stories and memories of the American involvement in World War Two based at Thorpe Abbotts, Norfolk. Housed in the original airfield control tower and surrounding atmospheric buildings the museum displays offer a moving testament to the Americans who came to a sleepy village in Norfolk to fight alongside the allies during World War Two. 100th Bomb Group Memorial Museum is entirely run by volunteers and is usually open from the beginning of March until the end of October each year. Entry to the museum is free and the organisation relies heavily on donations from visitors and sales in the gift shop. Due to the coronavirus pandemic the museum was unable to open this year. You can keep up to date with what’s happening while the museum is closed, and the history of the 100th Bomb Group, on their social media channels: Facebook/Twitter: @100bgmus www.100bgmus.org.uk -
Links between monster imagery and post-traumatic stress explored in new paper
A new paper by Jenny Hamilton, Programme Leader for Counselling and the MSc Mental Health, Wellbeing & Resilience at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), is exploring the relationship between monster imagery and post-traumatic stress. Monsters are considered as symbol and metaphor for unspoken or unprocessed personal and cultural trauma, that may represent underlying, unacknowledged fears. The paper develops Jenny’s academic and counselling work in the area of film therapy and discusses how encounters with the monster onscreen, in mental imagery, dreams or metaphor, may be allegorical to the individual’s internal struggle with post-traumatic stress. The paper particularly explores how monsters represent fears surrounding cancer and terminal illness in movies such as A Monster Calls and The Shallows. It is proposed that trauma experience confronts us with our mortality and fragility, bringing us into contact with the sense of ‘abject’ horror represented by monster imagery, when faced with existential threats that may render the everyday meaningless. Speaking after publication Jenny discussed some of the papers themes: “Our fascination with monsters may be linked to an adaptive evolutionary drive to symbolise experience into awareness for processing and meaning making. These initial imaged representations of fear states may begin a process of psychological integration of difficult experiences. In this way monsters may actually play a complex role in a human struggle to come to terms with overwhelming events. Onscreen monsters may allow us to face our fears and survive.” The themes discussed in the paper are relevant to academics and students in different disciplines, from literature, film and media studies to counselling and psychology. It has been published online in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications is available through open access as part of a wider journal collection of articles ‘Monsters: interdisciplinary explorations of monstrosity’. You can find it by clicking here. 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. -
How Research is Driving Innovation in Health Care at BGU
At Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) we’re proud to offer a diverse range of health care related courses designed to train and upskill at all levels, be they budding professionals or seasoned practitioners. Innovation is the driving force of these courses, particularly the MA Health and Social Care Leadership along with the MSc Primary and Community Care, which look to explore opportunities to take the health care profession to a new level. -
Hull’s Historic Docks and Ceremonial Culture Explored in Lecturer’s Award-Winning Essay
Dr Michael Reeve, Lecturer in History at BGU, has won the 2020 Gordon Forster Essay Prize, awarded by the Northern History journal, for his article exploring Hull’s historic docks and civic ceremonial culture. The piece, entitled ‘'An Empire Dock’: Place Promotion and the Local Acculturation of Imperial Discourse in ‘Britain’s Third Port’', looks in detail at civic ceremonial culture in Hull in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with a specific focus on new dock openings. This includes the grand opening of the 'Joint Dock' in east Hull in June 1914. This state-of-the-art dock was later known as King George Dock in honour of George V, who opened it with his wife, Mary, the Queen-consort. The article is concerned, in particular, with the way the British empire figured as a symbol and motif in dock openings and the promotional materials that surrounded them. Speaking following the article’s publication, Dr Reeve discussed what drew him to the subject: “This area of history has long interested me as a native of the port city of Hull, where I grew up just a stone's throw from the King George Dock. I kind of stumbled upon the topic when trying to develop a blog post about urban culture and civic ceremony during the First World War about three years ago (most of my work to date has focused on this conflict)! I ended up developing it into something much broader, related to the mid-nineteenth and early-twentieth century history of the British empire and its impact on urban culture in culture in coastal places. I found the opening ceremony for the dock fascinating and thought that it had clear connections to historical accounts I had read about imperial citizenship, as well as a wider research concern I have with 'coastal-urban' experience and identities in history. When I got into the archives (mainly the Hull History Centre and the British Newspaper Archive), I found a wealth of material to go on, from colourful brochures and ticket stubs, to richly-detailed newspaper accounts and planning documents. The article should be of interest to students enrolled on modules related to the British empire and identity (such as the third-year module, The Sun Never Set and the Blood Never Dried: The British Empire in the Long Nineteenth Century and the first-year module, History of Identity) and those researching local historical topics and methods. It will also relate to the MA Social and Cultural History module, City and Countryside in Transition 1870-1914, given its focus on urban historical change.” The article is currently available to download for free (for a limited time) by clicking here. To find out more about how you can uncover new adventures on a History course at BGU, visit our website, book onto one of our Open Events or speak to a member of our Enquiries Team. -
MA Student’s “Outstanding” Thesis Nominated for National History Prize
MA in Social and Cultural History student Simon Bromiley has been nominated for the RHS Rees Davies Prize for outstanding Master's thesis in History for his thesis ‘Misogyny in Manchester? Understanding the violence against women at Peterloo in 1819’. The thesis explores the Peterloo Massacre in 1819, which saw 18 people killed and over 700 injured as troops dispersed a peaceful Manchester crowd rallying for electoral reform. Interestingly, few historians have studied the massacre using a gendered approach which is striking given that women were nearly twice as likely to be sabred or truncheoned. Utilising a range of sources, Simon’s study revealed that the Peterloo women were deliberately targeted by the authorities who demonised and ‘othered’ them as non-citizens within a worldview that was inherently masculine, militaristic and misogynistic. During a period stereotyped by the gentile world of Jane Austen, the dissertation highlights a more disturbing form of Pride and Prejudice. Speaking following the nomination Simon’s supervisor Dr W. Jack Rhoden, Programme Leader for History at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) praised his work and the impact it could have on future research: “Drawing on archival materials, Simon has demonstrated the importance of understanding the event in gendered terms, with complex ideas of masculinity and femininity underpinning the tragic violence and ensuing political battle for its memorialisation. The thesis also offered new avenues for future research by linking this violent episode to British imperial identity and experience in the early 19th century. It's an outstanding piece of research underlining the importance of using a gender history approach to revisit familiar historical events and draws heavily upon the collections of the People's History Museum in Manchester.” Dr Rhoden’s praise was echoed by Dr Claire Hubbard-Hall, Programme Leader for the MA in Social and Cultural History at Bishop Grosseteste University, who shared how the MA programme equips students for advanced historical research: “It has been a privilege to support Simon on his postgraduate journey at the university. Simon's Dissertation is an original contribution to the topic of Peterloo which has undergone a renaissance of interest in the wake of its 200 year anniversary. The MA in Social & Cultural History equips students with enhanced historical research skills, enabling them to conduct independent research and produce high-quality writing. At the undergraduate level, the aspiration is to become a historian, and the MA enables them to fully realise this, becoming an independent historian pushing the frontiers of historical knowledge.” If you’d like to follow in Simon’s footsteps and uncover new adventures on a History course at BGU, visit our website, book onto one of our Open Days or speak to a member of our Enquiries Team. -
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.
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