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Collaborative BGU Nursing Programme makes Finals at HSJ Awards
The Postgraduate Certificate in General Practice Nursing (GPN-ST), a collaborative project between Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), HEE East Midlands, University of Northampton and Lincs Healthcare community has made it to the final of the 2020 Health Service Journal (HSJ) Value Awards. Although there will be no face to face event to announce the winners there will be an online HSJ Value Awards Day on 4th September. The online day is open to all and will begin at 9am and end at 4pm. It will be held on twitter, via @HSJ_Awards, and there is no need to register in advance. A 20-min slot will be dedicated to each category, in which the shortlist will be showcased and details surrounding the winner including their project synopses and judge’s commentary will be highlighted. The category for the GPN-ST, ‘System or Commissioner Led Service Redesign Initiative’ starts at 3pm. Addressing workforce shortfalls is a key priority for England’s Chief Nursing Officer. General Practice Nurse Specialty Training (GPN-ST) successfully creates a pipeline of new GPNs across STPs and resolves inter-practice poaching and recycling from the diminishing pool of experienced GPNs. GPN-ST offers nurses a way into an exciting and dynamic first destination GPN career, providing invaluable ‘on the job’ exposure, postgraduate education and supervision whilst also financially supporting practices to train. Showcased nationally as a model of good practice and a forerunner of the Long Term Plan’s ‘GPN Fellowships’, GPN-ST is delivering a viable solution to the GPN workforce crisis. Kirsty is a General Practice Nurse in Market Rasen and completed the course earlier this year. She shared her experiences and what the course could offer her career: “I had always wanted to work within General Practice right from my placements as a student nurse. After working in secondary care for 2 years from qualifying I got a job in General Practice but with no real experience I applied for the PG Cert in General Practice Nursing. Completing the course has given me the skills and underpinning knowledge to provide great care to patients and it has helped me understand the role of a practice nurse and enabled me to fulfil the role. I love my job as a practice nurse and the course really helped me achieve where I wanted to be.” The PG Cert In General Practice Nursing is a fantastic opportunity for health care professionals to up skill and provides a pathway into the developing course portfolio within the School of Social Science at BGU which reflects current and future needs of the health and social care sector. Other current courses include Master's in Health & Social Care Leadership and Primary & Community Care. To find out how these courses can help develop your healthcare skills visit our website or contact 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. -
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 -
Enabling Gender Equality in Leadership: an exploration of leadership and self-awareness at Bishop Grosseteste University
Thomasin Nicholds, Lecturer in Psychology at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), has been successful in leading a cross University application to the Church University Fund, which will provide funding for a two year project to develop further understanding of leadership and gender. Through this research project the University will be better placed to promote inclusion, enable shared learning and knowledge transfer. Thomasin’s successful bid utilizes a cross-university approach to develop dialogue, and develop an understanding of the experiences of leaders in our campus community. Speaking after the successful application Thomasin discussed some of the project's aims: "The project will provide a programme of activities to raise awareness, share learning and promote progress, using Community Participatory Action Research. The University Chaplaincy is central to Bishop Grosseteste University’s ethos and identity and the project presents an opportunity to place our Church University status at the heart of our development, by working with the wider University community in our understanding of diversity and leadership" The research team lead by Thomasin Nicholds comprises Dr Sue Becker, Dr Jonathan Wainwright and a new student researcher role (applications for which can be made here). A Steering Group is being established and will have representation from within the University and externally. The funder has encouraged that the project is shared nationally across the Cathedral Universities group and wider Higher Education and non-academic contexts. 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. -
Foundation Year Programme Hailed a Triumph
By Linette Wallace - CELT Coordinator September 2019 saw the inception of the new Foundation Year at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU). Although the benefits of the programme were widely recognised, no-one could have anticipated the demand of this flexible, bridging route. A cohort of approx. 50 students are just successfully finalising this highly accessible Level 4 course. The majority of these have decided to continue on with further study and have now selected their preferred degree programme equipped with a new raft of skills to enable success. Others have used this year to improve on their transferable competences to become more employable in an ever-competitive labour market. The Foundation Year consists of 8 modules which are assessed by a portfolio of work rather than through examinations. The beauty of the course, is that it gradually introduces academic ways of learning and working to those that may be nervous about attending university, or those who may not have achieved the necessary requirements to study at degree level straight away. Students have been carefully guided throughout the course and have received a wealth of support not only through the CELT team who predominantly deliver its teaching, but with other BG tutors who also are involved and committed to its delivery. With the passing of its inception year, the demand for this course has risen by over 100% cementing it as a key component of the curriculum offer. Currently, BG has in excess of 100 people already applying for the Foundation Year, this is testament not only to its success but its necessity to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to access higher education learning and teaching through a variety of means. By having a Foundation Year, it offers the opportunity for students to utilise building blocks to acquire knowledge and skills as an alternative route to progress onto undergraduate study. It prepares learners by getting them accustomed to university life, studying at an undergrad level, honing their referencing, analytical, reflective, digital and academic writing skills, for example. It also provides taster materials and sessions of the subject the individual is interested in proceeding onto at degree level, thereby proffering a varied, interesting and robust preliminary exploration into the world of academia. For further information about Foundation Year, please E: CELT@bishopg.ac.uk -
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. -
Awarding UK at BGU Achieves Ofqual Recognition
We are proud to announce that Awarding UK, the End-Point Assessment Service based within Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), has successfully gained Ofqual Recognition. This is the culmination of many months of hard work and preparation by the Awarding UK team, which qualifies Awarding UK to effectively deliver end-point assessments for a wide range of apprenticeship standards in the education and childcare sectors, extending the current offer from 2 standards to 6. The aim is to continue to develop a portfolio of end-point assessments which builds on the significant expertise already held by BGU in these areas. Emily Hughes, Partnerships Development Manager and Awarding UK Responsible Officer commented: “We believe BGU is the first University in the country to achieve Ofqual Recognition for end-point assessment, and we are proud to be leading the way in enhancing access to education and skills in this way”. Vice-Chancellor, Reverend Canon Professor Peter Neil stated: “Here at BGU, we believe strongly in providing opportunities for people to develop and learn, and end-point assessment is a new and exciting way of allowing us to expand that work. The Awarding UK team have worked tirelessly to ensure that they will deliver the highest quality end-point assessments, and this is a major vote of confidence from Ofqual”. Awarding UK end-point assessment delivery will commence at the start of 2021. For more information, and to get the latest updates on end-point assessments, visit www.awardinguk.com, email enquiries@awardinguk.com or follow Awarding UK on Twitter @Awarding_UK -
Student Surveys Bring Prizes and Smiles During Lockdown
https://www.bgu.ac.uk/news/student-surveys-bring-prizes-and-smiles-during-lockdown -
Student teachers share good practice on reading
Three trainee teachers at Bishop Grosseteste University have had research projects on promoting reading to children shared on a national good practice website for educators. The Reading Rich Pedagogies website is designed to support teachers who are developing Reading for Pleasure in the classroom and now features projects from students Chloe Golland, Isobel Holmes and Amber Whiley who are all currently in their third year of the BA Primary Education with QTS course. All three began their projects as a result of attending the OU/UKLA's Teachers' Reading group run by Emma Rogers (BGU Senior lecturer in Education). Through attending these meetings they were able to audit their own practice, meet with teachers and discuss effective classroom strategies and develop their knowledge of children's books; experience would feed directly into their projects. Isabel’s project explored ‘Sharing Reading’ and speaking after its acceptance to the website she highlighted the impact the Reading Group had had on her: ““It was a really good opportunity to speak to other teachers and learn from their reading for pleasure practice. It was also a great way to develop my own practice and explore reading for pleasure in more depth. “ Chloe’s project, pictured above, provided an interactive display to encourage discussion around a number of subjects related to reading. She shared her thoughts on how the group and the project would benefit her future teaching: “It was an enjoyable and influential experience which encouraged me to develop my own reading for pleasure and develop strategies which I could utilize to promote it within my future placements and when I become a fully qualified NQT” ‘Raising the Profile of Reading for Pleasure’ was the focus of Amber’s project and she shared how the group encouraged her to further her research: “This was an interesting, beneficial and inspiring group which has encouraged me to increase my own subject knowledge on reading and inspired me to research more into this area of education” Having led the group Emma Rogers was delighted to see the students’ efforts gaining national recognition: “This has been a great opportunity to showcase and celebrate the students' hard work and commitment to developing reading for Pleasure and great preparation for their careers in Primary education.” 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. -
Applying Self Determination Theory to Childhood Feeding Challenges Explored by PhD student
A paper by Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) final year PhD student, Jo Cormack, on an application of Self Determination Theory (SDT) has been recognised as among the most requested and downloaded article in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior for the quarter. Co-authored by Dr Katja Rowell (American medical doctor and child feeding expert) and BGU Lecturer in Psychology, Dr Gianina Postavaru, the paper applies SDT to childhood feeding challenges, in particular exploring how the 'basic needs' proposed by SDT - autonomy, relatedness and competence - can provide a framework for a responsive approach to child feeding. Speaking after receiving the accolade, Jo explained why the paper was gaining such a high level of attention: “The paper has generated a lot of interest among clinicians working with paediatric feeding problems (also known as 'extreme picky eating' or 'selective eating'). This is in part because the concepts of responsive feeding and responsive feeding therapy are currently gaining traction in the field, as practitioners explore alternatives to more pressuring and coercive strategies and therapeutic approaches to managing feeding difficulties.” You can read more about Jo's work with 'picky eating' at www.jocormack.com The full citation for the article is below: Cormack, J., Rowell, K., & Postăvaru, G. I. (2020). Self-Determination Theory as a Theoretical Framework for a Responsive Approach to Child Feeding. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. 52(6), 646-651. For more information on the doctoral programmes at BGU, visit our website or contact our Enquiries Team.
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