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Award Nomination for ‘Cooking with CELT’ Video Series
The Centre for Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT) at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) has been shortlisted for a prestigious HEIST award for its innovative YouTube-series ‘Cooking with CELT and friends’. ‘Cooking with CELT and Friends’ was launched in September 2019 to support student engagement and ran throughout the first half of the academic year. This inventive project sought to make every student at BGU feel part of their learning community and involved the production of short cooking demonstrations by professional support staff as they introduced themselves and their student support services to new students. “The videos really broadened my knowledge on the services on campus and made me more aware of the support available to me." Kieron Treacher, History and Education. A launch event was held at the Freshers’ Fayre in 2019. Free gifts of olive oil and balsamic vinegar were offered to students, as well as cupcakes and the opportunity to enter a raffle to win a food hamper. During the event, students were also able to sign up to a mailing list to receive information about each video as it was released. Continuing promotion through the semester included the use of printed posters and pull-up banners, as well as digital promotion via social media and the electronic student portal. "I watch the Cooking with CELT videos every week and they are all really good recipes for students. This is the perfect start in helping them cook for themselves as well as talking about what is on campus to help them academically, socially and mentally.” Jasmin Reid, BA (hons) Primary Education. As a Student Engagement project, Cooking with CELT was tailored to the unique and atypical nature of Higher Education at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU). A small, specialist university which focuses on initial teacher training and education-based courses, BGU’s students often learn away from campus on work-based placements. Consequently, when the CELT team set out to create a resource to familiarise our students with BGU’s professional support services, it needed to be something innovative Cooking with CELT is certainly innovative. Its mission was three-fold: to make information about support services accessible; to provide guidance for cooking simple recipes; and to facilitate a sense of a learning community by allowing students to match real people to services. It also offered the benefit of delivering this information throughout the first semester, avoiding the information overload that can occur within the first few weeks of term. Staff at the University also enjoyed the series and learnt something new about the professional support services at BGU. “When you work in one specific area, it’s easy to lose sight of the work of other departments – Cooking with CELT helped my understanding of what we do across a range of services for students and has helped me signpost students better.” Fran Trzeciak, Learning Development Tutor. The project has been shortlisted in the Best Low Budget Initiative category by the HEIST team who are celebrating their 30th year rewarding best practice in the higher education sector. The winner of the category is due to be announced in October 2020. The Cooking with CELT videos have now been compiled into a playlist to run on the CELT area on BGU’s student portal -
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. -
Exploring Relationships, Sex and Health Education in the Early Years
Level 6 students on the Early Childhood Studies course at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) got to explore Relationship, Health and Sex Education in the Early years thanks to a guest lecture by Catherine Kirk of the RSHE Service. Organised as part of their 'Issues in Early Years’ module, the interactive session encouraged the students to discuss their memories of RHSE training from school before exploring this topic in relation to the early years. Catherine Kirk is an industry expert with over 20 years’ experience in RSE including leading development in two local authorities. She is also the founder of #RSEday, and current part-time RSE consultant for Nottingham City Council. Samantha Hoyes, Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies at BGU, helped set up the event and discussed the importance of students getting to interact with industry leaders: “The ‘Issues in Early Years’ module is all about broadening our student's knowledge of the early years and some of the current issues and themes in the sector. Catherine has over 20 years experience in RSHE and is currently involved in a range of projects around this topic, making her an ideal candidate for the students to learn from. Catherine’s session was really positively received by the students who enjoyed how interactive it was. In fact several of them have also continued to research the area further and are now covering this as their issue in early years. External speakers both enhance our modules and allow students to consider their own future career opportunities. Already this year we have welcomed a very experienced reception teacher in to talk about assessment in the early years and the upcoming changes, as well as a local Health visitor to enhance our health and wellbeing module and we look forward to offering more talks as the year progresses” 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 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. -
Your opportunity to help develop children’s pleasure in reading
Bishop Grosseteste University invites anyone committed to developing children’s desire, delight and engagement as readers to join our online OU/UKLA Reading Group. Informal, friendly and supportive we welcome teachers, librarians, student teachers and support staff to join us and commit to attending all five virtual CPD sessions. We will be developing evidence-informed practice, widening our knowledge of children’s literature and other texts, enriching our RfP pedagogy and documenting the impact on the young people as readers. When: 12th January – Introduction and reviewing practice, 4th February – Identifying areas of focus – measuring the impact of RfP 24th March – Exploring RfP – Poetry picnic19th May – Exploring RfP – Non-fiction Book Blether9th June – Celebration and sharing Time: All 4.00-5.30 To book a place, register your details on https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/teachers-reading-group-tickets-132959131341 For further details email Emma.Rogers@bishopg.ac.uk www.research–rich-pedagogies/readingforpleasure -
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. -
Christmas at BGU – Bringing Cheer and Raising Funds
By Linette Wallace, CELT Coordinator Support and activities for Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) students over the festive period looked slightly different this year due to the second national lockdown and the staggering of students leaving the campus earlier than normal and focusing on remote learning. However, to ensure the safety and welfare of our students, (some of whom still remained on campus during the holiday period) a suite of activities and support were put in place to help people not feel isolated and so that they could access key advice and assistance should they have needed it. Prior to the Christmas break, the University started on-campus Lateral Flow Testing for both students and staff. This helped to ensure that students could be tested for COVID-19 and protect themselves and their families as much as possible by having the required amount of self-isolation time if applicable before returning home for the holiday period. Whilst the campus was closed, the security team were present on-site 24/7 and accommodation and Chaplaincy staff also provided support. The Students’ Union continued to add wellbeing advice to their social media pages throughout the season and students could continue to access a range of resources and advice through the Student Advice Centre and via the Health Assured service BGU have put in place so that students can access wellbeing advice 24 hours a day. All BGU students have access to the Resilience Toolkit which is situated on their virtual learning environment and provides a raft of information on stress/resilience and mindfulness. In addition, goodie bags containing a range of treats were delivered to International and Erasmus students living on campus and small, potted Christmas trees were also delivered to some of these students living off-campus so that they could make their environments as homely as possible. To help engage with and safeguard students who were away from family and friends during the holiday period, staff at BGU organised online chit-chats, door step meets, organised walks and a remote virtual ‘Escape Room’ game. Students, some of whom were resident on campus and some who still participated after securing a flight home, worked together to answer a range of challenges and puzzles to advance through the game and solve the conundrum. The Escape Room was hosted by Macmillan Cancer Support and donations were made to the charity of £160.56 including Gift Aid to support the event. 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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