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Why adults shouldn't rule out children's book from their reading lists
As the country, along with the rest of the world, settles into the possible new normal of social distancing and working from home many are beginning to plan out long lists of exciting potential reads to keep them occupied. These may be well loved classics or unknown literary adventures but the likelihood is that they will be books designed for adults. However, as Dr Mary-Louise Maynes, Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Studies at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) and one of the academics on the new MA in Children’s Literature and Literacies, explains adults shouldn’t be ashamed to include some children’s books in their choices too. On reading children’s books (as an adult) Browsing the adult fiction shelves of Waterstones recently I noticed that the Harry Potter books have yet another new cover without any sign of the boy wizard. This is presumably so that you can read the books on the train without looking silly: without looking as if you are reading a children’s book. Adults read children’s books, but still, it seems, reading them makes many of us rather uncomfortable. As we launch our MA in Children’s Literature and Literacies here at Bishop Grosseteste University, I want to explain why I read children’s books and why I think more adults should too, and not apologise for doing so. They are good ‘reads’… Children’s authors know that children are exacting critics. Junior-aged children in particular (generally) enjoy books which are plot-driven, gripping and engaging from the start, well-paced, and which use cliff-hangers at the end of chapters to make you want to read on. If you want to lose yourself in a thrilling story or a page-turning adventure look no further than a good children’s book such as The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Selznick, 2007) or The Explorer (Rundell, 2018). In literary terms to describe a text as plot-driven often implies a lack of depth and quality, a criticism often levelled, unfairly, at children’s literature as a whole. Many children’s books present examples of beautiful and lyrical writing where there is much to explore below the surface and which invite re-reading. Take for example the slow, ‘outsider’ reflections of the Fox in Pennypacker and Klassen’s Pax (2017) or the haunting, puzzling and disturbing words and images in Shaun Tan’s The Red Tree (2010). They have pictures…. Children’s picture books, non-fiction and poetry will introduce you to the work of some of the most innovative and diverse artists and the images are every bit as important as the words. Children’s illustrators have distinct visual styles and employ a range of artistic techniques: contrast for example Beth Waters’ striking monoprints in A Child of St Kilda (2019) or Mark Hearld’s cut-out collages for Nicola Davies’ A First Book of Nature (2014). Images are not confined to bold colours and simple lines: Emily Sutton’s illustrations have a ‘retro’ feel harking back to the work of Edward Ardizzone and they are not at all twee or cosy: in contrast the images in Greder’s The Island (2008) are dark, gothic and threatening. They explain things…. Children’s books today cover almost all topics including some previously taboo ones (for example Poo, a Natural History of the Unmentionable, Davies, 2014) and present them in ways which are digestible and engaging starting-points for further investigation. The Theory of Relativity is beautifully introduced in Bearne and Radunsky’s On a Beam of light (2016) and astrophysics is presented very simply in Astrophysics for Babies (Ferris, 2018). What we learn from children’s books can often stick with us throughout life: in Everything I need to know I learned from a children’s book (2008) Anita Silvey interviews 100 ‘notable’ individuals who explain how children’s books influenced their thinking and later careers. Yet in contemporary children’s literature the ways in which information is imparted are rarely moralistic or heavy-handed, with enjoyment and engagement being primary motivators for reading so that the reader does not feel ‘talked at’ or instructed. They reawaken memories… Re-reading Alison Uttley’s wonderful A Traveller in Time (1939) recently, I was suddenly transported back to a mental image of the protagonist Penelope wearing a nightdress I wore as a child. I must have dressed her in the nightdress in my imagination and for a tiny moment I felt a connection with the person I was when I first read the book aged eight years old. Such connections are powerful if illusory: as Peter Hunt (1997) said as adults we can never really read as we did as a child. Re-reading reminds us of the difference of childhood and the ways in which our understanding of childhood changes as we grow older. Reading children’s books as adults we cannot help but be aware of the ways in which childhood is ‘socially constructed’. They offer insight about ourselves and our society since they are (usually) written by adults with adult perceptions of what childhood and children should be, and what children should be allowed to read or forbidden from reading. If, like me, you love reading children’s books, why not consider joining our MA Children’s Literature and Literacies, launching September 2020? Discover books that intrigue and move you: yes there are plenty of bunnies getting ready for bed, and wimpy kids writing diaries, but equally there are books which address the key issues of our time and which challenge and upset expectations, books which explore the range of human experience and which take us into worlds beyond our own. Dr Mary-Louise Maynes researches children’s non-fiction literature and will be teaching on the MA Children’s Literature and Literacies. She is a member of the Literature and Literacies RKEU. For more information please visit our children's literature courses pages. -
BGU History MA student nominated for national dissertation prize
Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) History student, Abigail White, has been nominated for a nationally recognised competition for outstanding MA thesis in History. Abigail’s work entitled: ‘To what extent did the School Boards contribute to changes in teacher training colleges, 1890-1912? The case of Lincoln Diocesan Training College.’ explored the educational history of Lincoln Diocesan Training College (as BGU was once known) and made exceptional use of the University’s own library and archives. Focusing on the Training College it evaluates why teacher training colleges experienced change in the 1890s and into the twentieth century. Following its publication, Abigail’s dissertation has been nominated for the Rees Davies Prize for an outstanding Master’s Thesis, an award which commemorates former Royal Historical Society President and distinguished medieval scholar, Professor Sir Rees Davies (1938-2005). The prize is awarded for the best Master’s dissertation submitted by a UK institution of Higher Education. The winner is awarded a prize of £250 and invited to submit an article based on the dissertation to be considered for publication in the RHS Transactions. Speaking following the announcement, Abigail described her pride at receiving the nomination and explained why that particular area of history proved so captivating: “To find out that my piece of work had also been nominated for such a prestigious award was astonishing and a real privilege. Choosing my topic was the easiest part of the whole dissertation process. I was, and still am, amazed that most of the buildings at BGU are original meaning that the Victorian students would have been as familiar with them as I am. For instance, on both the Chapel and Skinner building exterior walls you can see evidence of the college expansion that happened at the turn of the century in 1900. This, coupled with the fact that the students were young women whose opportunities for a career and independence was limited during this period, made BGU’s history unique and fascinating topic to write about. Furthermore, using Lincoln Diocesan Training College as a topic also gave me the opportunity to see original documents detailing the student experience at Lincoln Diocesan Training College at the end of nineteenth century. So much so, that I was able to track a good majority of the students on the census which brought up some previously unknown insights including the fact that William Gladstone’s granddaughter, Margaret Wickham, completed a year of study here!” If you’d like to follow in Abigail’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. -
Top Tips for PGCE Students
With summer fast approaching undergraduate students will be planning out their next steps after finishing their degrees. Given our over 150 year's of experience in training teachers, many of our students will be considering staying on to begin a career in teaching through a PGCE course. With a wide range of age and subject specialism they're a great choice for anyone looking at a future in education. Although a PGCE may seem like a daunting task former student Jessica Barker has been put together her top tips to help new students succeed in their efforts to become teachers.* I started writing this post way back in September and have added to it throughout my time on the PGCE course. These are some basic but helpful tips that I want to offer any upcoming PGCE students, and most of them apply more generally to trainee teachers coming from other routes into the career too. Read on and hopefully you'll take some of this on board and find it relevant! 1. Take out a loan. Yes, you'll end up with a little more to pay back once you're earning, but that was inevitable after your degree anyway! The student loan can work wonders and top up your bursary to a very comfy sum. For those of you not fortunate enough to receive a bursary in the first place because our government don't deem your specialist subject worthy of one (don't even get me started), the loan will really help. 2. Quit your part-time job. It's going to be so hard to balance a part-time job and the training for a full time career, which quite honestly requires all of your time and effort. Long gone are the days when you'd get home from work and could switch off from it all, you'll now be working long into the evenings and at least one day of the weekend. Don't let a part time job hinder your training year, take the loan out and quit your job. 3. Use your age as an advantage. This is for those of us entering into the profession straight from undergraduate, particularly if you have a baby face. You're entering into a school late, the kids don't know you but they're observant and are going to recognise that you look pretty young. The minute that somebody seems to clock on that you're only in your early twenties is when you should start to use your age as an advantage. Kids instantly have a lot of respect for you when they feel like they can relate to you, so don't be afraid to show them that you're interested in some of the same things as them. There's a real temptation to hide your youth but I've found that chatting to the year eight boys about Fortnite and discussing prom with the year eleven girls really has helped me to win them over. Don't give too much away about yourself, do more listening than talking, but admit that because you're only five to ten years older than they are, you share similar interests - they'll start to see you as more human. Also, even though you know that actually the difference between a sixteen and a twenty-two year old isn't that mammoth, they won't. So they'll still see you as a proper fully fledged adult, even though you might not feel like one yet! 4. Take snacks, water and coffee. Teaching is physically (and emotionally) draining, you can never relax because you have to remain constantly alert, so you're using a lot more energy than your body is probably used to! It's a good idea to take something to nibble on at break time, just to give you that boost through until lunch. Water is a good idea too because working in a school makes you prone to headaches - the bright yellow lights and the noisy kids are a winning combination for heavy eyes and a pounding head, and staying hydrated will ensure that this isn't made any worse than it needs to be. Coffee is good at helping you feel a little more alive, particularly on dreary and dull days when you're having to teach some of your most challenging classes! It's also just good for socialising in the staff room, you have a reason to nip there and make yourself a drink, and you can sit and chat to everyone while you do. 5. Be professional. You're a trainee, people are watching your every move, and that isn't just when you're being formally observed in the classroom. You might think the staff room is a safe place to vent about your nightmare year eight's, but what you maybe don't know is that Satanic Sammy's mother is also a science teacher at the school and is sitting directly opposite you as you don him with that nickname! So avoid over-sharing, even when the other member's of staff are chatting away about personal things, don't get involved. You don't want to give people any excuse to judge you. This doesn't just apply to the things you say, but also be careful around what you do. Even if other staff members are okay rocking up to school five minutes before the bell for registration is going to ring, you can't behave like that. It's annoying but you've got to make sure you're doing everything the "right" way, and be assured, somebody will tell you if you're not! 6. Get involved with extra-curricular activities. As a trainee you're not obliged to help out with book club or choir, but staff will really appreciate you offering a helping hand, and it's a fantastic way to get to know the students. It's nice to show that you're taking a wider interest in the school too (and this will help you tick off Standard Eight of the Teachers Standards) so find out what there is to be getting involved with. Extra-curricular activities are fun to be a part of - they're filled with the kids that are passionate about that activity (be it drama, reading, sport, and so on) so you don't have to worry about bad behaviour, instead it's a nice opportunity to see the students at their best. I ran book club at my last school, and most of you know that I'm not an avid reader, but I absolutely loved seeing the students take an interest and develop a passion for literature. 7. Have one day off a week. You've overloaded with work, but it's important to have some time to yourself too. I honestly can't remember what I did before my PGCE because while on it, 90% of my time was filled with marking, planning and teaching. I tried to have one day a week where I did something completely unrelated to teaching, and it was usually Saturday. I'd go out for a meal or to the shops, I might go for a walk if the weather was nice (sometimes ending up at the pub), I watched some TV or I wrote my blog, just anything that I fancied really. It's so important to switch from your professional self to your personal self, and it makes you feel a lot better about life. 8. Buy personalised stamps. As a PGCE student, you'll be sharing your classes with host teachers - this can be tough, especially on second placement. The kids are usually able to adjust to having two teachers in the classroom, often it's the other teacher who can't. I found on my second placement that some teachers were very reluctant to let go of their classes and still wanted to have a presence within the classroom while I was teaching, which could make it very difficult to establish myself. I bought a personalised stamp that read 'Miss Barker says fantastic work', and i used it whenever a student's classwork or homework was especially impressive. This is first and foremost to give the students some recognition, but it was also for my own sake too! When they got the stamp they knew that it was me who had marked this work, which helped me to build a rapport with them. It sounds really trivial but this has helped so much, because students then reached out and thanked me for marking their book, and wanted to discuss my comments. They appreciated it and recognised that it was me who was putting in that effort. 9. Live at home if you can. This comes down to personal preference because everybody's living situations are different, but for me, I don't think I'd have managed this year if I didn't live at home. Shared accommodation is something I never want to go back to and definitely couldn't have put up with while doing my PGCE. I think I could have managed living alone this year, not in a group, but life is so much easier at home. I'm really lucky to have super supportive parents who I'm very close to, which definitely helped because I always had someone to talk to if I'd had a bit of a rubbish day. I also got all of my meals cooked for me, my pack-up was always ready for me on a morning, my bed was made if I didn't have time to do it, and my clothes were all washed and neatly ironed! You don't realise how much you value these things until you don't have them, and having lived away for three years, I can see just how lucky I am. If you know you'll get looked after at home, move back there. I get that it feels a little strange, to hundreds of children you are a teacher, and yet back home you feel like a teenager - but that's okay! You can be responsible and professional at work, and still have your mum take care of you at home, for this year at least. Also, life is much more affordable when you live at home, and your money will stretch so much further. It's worth considering. 10. Ask for help. So many people from my cohort quit during first placement, about a third of us just dropped out, and I was shocked. As stressful as it was and as hard as it seemed, I couldn't believe people could just give up... then I moved to my second placement and I finally understood. Sometimes you feel under-valued, unappreciated, demoralised and even bullied... and you need to speak out. Expectations vary from school to school and while one placement might be easygoing and quite casual, another might be very strict and on top of things - if you're struggling with the pace of it all, or if you think you aren't good enough, you need to talk to one of your university mentors/tutors. I was having real problems at my placement school so reached out to my school based mentor and made them aware. I then received lots of additional support from the people at university and knew that as hard as the course had become, I could get through it. I ended up being removed from my second placement school and moved back to my first one, this was exactly what I needed and had wanted for a very long time. Things just didn't work out at the second placement and it was affecting my self esteem and happiness outside of work, and because I reached out to the uni and continued to report to them whenever there was an issue, they were able to get me out of a bad situation and into a better one. Don't be afraid to tell people that you're not doing great, it's better to mention it early on than wait until you feel the only option is to quit. The people at university will want to help you, it's their job, and they will act on your behalf and make things easier if you'll only ask. It's a long year full of ups and downs - sometimes with more downs than ups - but it's worth sticking out and completing. Enter into your PGCE year with a positive mindset and face the challenges as they come to the very best of your ability. Enjoy the experience and remember it won't last forever, the end is in sight right from the very beginning and you can do it. I really hope you found this post useful and will take some of these recommendations on board. I recently graduated from my PGCE, qualifying as an Outstanding teacher and having received two merits in both of my assignments, and will be beginning my NQT year this September, and I can't wait. Thank you for reading. Jessica successfully graduated last summer before beginning her NQT year, you can keep up to date with her progress on her blog "Life as a University Graduate". You can find more information on the wide range of innovative PGCE courses offered by BGU on our website. Alternatively you can contact our Enquiries Team or join us on one our Open Days to find out how to begin your journey into teaching. -
Mathematics Masterclasses
Mathematics Masterclasses are interactive extracurricular mathematics sessions for keen and talented young people around the UK. Masterclasses are designed to introduce students to aspects of mathematics that are not usually covered in the school curriculum. The Lincolnshire Masterclass series for Year 9 is part of the Secondary Mathematics Masterclass Network run by the Royal Institution of GreatBritain (Ri) and which includes over 65 series across the country. -
Researching universities at home
Even through this uncertain time, it’s still possible to research Universities while you are at home and BGU is here to help! -
Your Voice Heard
We are keen to capture your experience of being a student at BGU and therefore encourage you to complete one of the surveys below. -
Self-determination explored at special symposium
Researchers from around the world attend symposium organised by BGU academic -
Guidance for ECTs (Early Career Teachers) - Beyond ITE (BITE)
We recognise that your early career induction matters – as your professional development continues during this two- year period. This section of BGU’s website has been designed to support early career teachers. It offers guidance, together with useful links to sites and documents. Below are key sections to support your development as a teacher covering: Early Career Teacher Advice and SupportUseful Resources and WebsitesNational Teaching PrioritiesContinued Professional Development and Further Study As stressed in BGU teaching sessions, we are not qualified to support you with legal matters and would strongly advise that you join a Teachers’ Union. BGU is committed to supporting you as you transition to the school workplace; we want to continue to work with you during these formative years. Your school mentor and tutor will provide guidance and support, including coaching and mentoring, for your professional development. However, remember that as early career teachers, BGU is still here to support you with aspects of your teaching activity. For example, advice on behaviour management or subject knowledge and pedagogy. The recently developed Early Career Framework offers a structured programme of development, support, and professional dialogue. This programme provides a set of materials which cover the five core areas of the ECF. These are Behaviour Management, Pedagogy, Curriculum, Assessment and Professional Behaviours. Please email us at beyondite@bishopg.ac.uk. Your communication will be forwarded to the appropriate member of staff. -
Information for Mature Students
If it’s been a while since you were last in education, don’t worry, we’re here for you -
*Primary ITE Documents
These CPD guides are only to be used when directed by your SBM. They are designed to support you in your development, but only when gaps in knowledge and understanding have been identified by you and your mentor. You are not expected to complete all of the tasks within the guides and you may find that you do not need to use them at all.
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