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LiNCHigher project to provide 25,000 Lincolnshire students with online learning programme
LiNCHigher, a collaborative outreach programme that brings together Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), the University of Lincoln and 45 schools, colleges and other local organisations, is delighted to announce that they have teamed up with Lincolnshire-based creative digital agency First Media, to launch ‘LiNCHigher Learning’. LiNCHigher Learning will enable around 25,000 students across Lincolnshire access to specialist learning resources online during and beyond this COVID-19 pandemic, and is available now for schools and colleges across Lincolnshire; free of charge. Part of the Office for Students’ Uni Connect Programme that was set up in January 2017, LiNCHigher, which is a consortium of all Universities and Colleges across Lincolnshire, is the first of the 29 Uni Connect partnerships across the country to launch such a service to secondary school and college students. The programme will grant increased access to information about educational journeys, students’ aspirations and the opportunities that Higher Education can provide, as well as bringing fun activities from education providers from across the country. First Media, who specialise in creative digital solutions in eLearning, software development, web design and events, were able to add functionality to their award-winning eProspectus software to create an online learning platform that is simple and secure to use. LiNCHigher is also in the process of launching a Careers & Higher Education Outreach Hub ready for July 2021, and work with First Media has enabled the project to be fast-tracked. The new Lincolnshire Outreach Careers Hub will provide a one stop resource for all students, parents, teachers and educational advisors across Lincolnshire seeking support and guidance on all aspects of Higher Education across the county. The eProspectus already has an ecosystem in place to engage with learners, advisors, schools, colleges, training providers and local authorities across Lincolnshire. It’s designed to promote careers, pathways and opportunities available to young people, including a way for Year 11 students of applying for a place at college and it’s currently being used by 10 Local Authorities around the UK. Ian Hargreaves, Education Solutions Director for First Media, said: “We have really enjoyed working on this project with Jonathan and his team. We were able to quickly mobilise our team to produce a sophisticated and expandable solution that grows our existing platform to provide a complete solution for them in an incredibly quick timeframe.” Jonathan Lidster, Project Manager for LiNCHigher, said: “We are delighted to have worked with Lincolnshire-based First Media on this exciting online programme that, despite the current circumstances, students across the county can access some great learning resources; free of charge. “We hope that the free online material and courses will help reduce the pressure on teachers and parents, and continue to encourage students with their studies, and support and strengthen their decisions concerning their future, during this time. “We look forward to building on this online platform and working further with First Media to get out Outreach Hub released.” LiNCHigher is part of the Office for Students’ Uni Connect Programme. LiNCHigher, alongside its strategic partners, work in over 40 schools, six colleges and two Universities across Lincolnshire, aiming to raise aspirations of young people in discovering the benefits of choosing Higher Education through information, guidance and impartial advice. For more information please visit www.linchigher.co.uk -
BGSU are on a Mission to Help the Humble Hedgehog
Members of Bishop Grosseteste University’s Students’ Union are on a mission to make the University’s campus a safe space for the Hedgehogs of Lincoln. Working alongside Hedgehog Friendly Campus, the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and BGU’s Estates Team they are planning a number of initiatives and activities to gain official accreditation as a ‘hedgehog-friendly’ campus. These include reducing the amount of litter and upgrading the green spaces on campus, as well as installing hedgehog houses, running fund-raising events and offering educational sessions on hedgehog welfare. Kaylee Hempenstall, Activities Officer at BGSU, is leading the project and explained why she felt it was important to get involved: “Now, more than ever, we need to be taking care of our planet, and this initiative will really help us to do our bit for the environment, all whilst protecting some of nature’s most vulnerable creatures. I put a motion to Student Council that BGU should work towards becoming hedgehog friendly after hearing about what the initiative does and how we can help – hedgehog population has fallen drastically in recent years, with a decline of up to 50% since the year 2000. The British Hedgehog Preservation Society developed the hedgehog-friendly campus campaign in a bid to bring hedgehog population numbers up, and keep them safe – and I think it’s a fantastic idea. BGU is already quite a green campus, with the potential to become the perfect habitat for hedgehogs! As well as helping hedgehogs, working towards hedgehog-friendly accreditation has so many other positive outcomes for the university and its students.” There are three levels to the hedgehog-friendly campus accreditation – Bronze, Silver, and Gold. If all goes well BGSU are hoping to have achieved Bronze status by December with a further goal reaching the additional levels in the future. To kickstart their work BGSU will including a collection of hedgehog themed questions in their weekly quiz (this Sunday on their Facebook page) and they plan to begin running webinars in the near future. You can keep up to date on their activities, and find out how you can get involved on their website. -
BGU Sign Memorandum of Understanding with Bangkok University International
As part of Bishop Grosseteste University’s (BGU) ongoing work in Thailand, Wayne Dyble, International Manager, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of BGU with Bangkok University International (BUI). The Memorandum reflects the maturing relationship between the two institutions which will see BGU PGCE students visit the Bangkok campus with the prospect of BUI undergraduates visiting BGU’s Lincoln campus to study Business English classes. Following the signing ceremony Aimee Quickfall, Head of Programmes for Primary Education and Early Years at BGU, led a Business English taster workshop with around forty BUI students. During the workshop students were encouraged to explore the subtleties of Business English and how language assumes a contextual specificity. Wayne Dyble along with BGU colleagues Professor Chris Atkin and Dr Phil Wood also supported the session. Whilst Thailand the BGU team developed institutional links and worked with a range of Thai stakeholders on a research bid focussed on curriculum reform and teacher standards. For further information on the visit or BGU’s activities in Thailand and other International activities, please contact Wayne Dyble or visit our International web pages. -
Putting Smiles at the Heart of Teaching: Children's (Un) Happiness explored in Senior Lecturer's new book
If you ask parents what they most want for their child, many will say something like this: ‘I just want my child to be happy’. Whilst most understand that they cannot ensure their children are permanently happy, they are often unprepared for seeing their children frequently or deeply sad. ‘Why are our children so unhappy?’ is a question that baffles parents worldwide but a new book edited by Dr Maria Efstratopoulou aims to provide an understanding of the factors that influence children’s emotions which it believes is essential for anyone interacting with young children. Differing from most books in the field, which focus on offering advice to professionals on how to manage children’s behaviour, Bring My Smile Back: Working with Unhappy Children in Education aims to explore the crucial link between emotions, well-being and learning and the wider social factors affecting children’s happiness. The authors, including several of Dr Efstratopoulou’s colleagues at BGU, draw from a range of experience, examples, case studies and educational approaches to engage with children’s’ wellbeing and emotions. With chapters covering areas such as ‘Can we define happiness?’, supporting children with communication problems and the ‘(Un)Happiness of Black and Ethnic Minority Children’ Bring My Smile Back focuses on children’s happiness rather than their academic achievements and positive behaviour, in essence putting children’s Smiles at the heart of teaching. Writing in the book’s forward Professor Scott Fleming, Deputy Vice-Chancellor in BGU, praised the publication’s accessible exploration as a “landmark contribution” to education: “Children’s wellbeing and happiness have become matters of global concern. This important and exciting collection brings together the work of an impressive team of International Social science scholars and practitioners to address these challenges. Its timing could hardly be better. The chapters have a very accessible structure and format, they are conceptually sophisticated and have an explicit applied professional practitioner emphasis. They should be read by students, researchers, policy-makers and those responsible for service delivery. If they are Bring my smile back: Working with unhappy children in education is likely to become a landmark contribution. I am delighted to endorse a book that features my colleagues from Bishop Grosseteste University. With a rich heritage in teacher education and training, this book is an embodiment of many of our traditional values as well as a firm commitment to health-related subject fields that form part of our portfolio of undergraduate and taught postgraduate awards” Also involved in the publication were Craig Bridge, Educational Psychologist and Lecturer, Dr. Hadiza Kere Abdulrahman, Lecturer of Inclusive Education and Dr.Tracy Jeffery, Lecturer in SENI all from BGU. If you are interested in exploring a future in education and psychology than visit our course pages or speak to a member of our Enquiries Team to find out how BGU could be the place for you. -
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. -
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