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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. -
Maintaining a balance in your home working arrangements
Jonny Richardson, PR & Communications Officer at BGU shares his experience on how finding balance helped him adjust to working from home. -
Bishop Grosseteste University to Embark on Farmer Support Project
Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), in collaboration with economic development consultants, Rose Regeneration, has been successful in securing grant funding of over £90,000 in order to support the wellbeing of farmers in England as part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) Future Farming Resilience Fund programme. The Future Farming Resilience Fund programme aims to support the farming industry through the post- Brexit Agricultural Transition Period which is in place until 2027. The Lincolnshire Open Research and Innovation Centre (LORIC) team at BGU, along with consultants from Rose Regeneration, plan to work with Farmer Support Network organisations across the country to evaluate the impact that Farmer Support Networks have on the health and wellbeing of the farmers and land managers that they serve. Following this, the team aim to provide social impact reports that will enable the Networks to develop their offer of services so that they can focus their support on the areas of greatest impact. This work will also support the development of tools that can be used on an ongoing basis to further evaluate social impact within the sector in the future. The results from this programme are of vital importance in helping Defra to understand what support is effective in helping farmers throughout the agricultural transition period. Kay Purle, Data Analyst at LORIC: “The Lincolnshire Open Research and Innovation Centre, at Bishop Grosseteste University applied for Defra funded programme back in October 2019, alongside Rose Regeneration, a locally based economic regeneration consultancy company. We have worked closely with the consultants from Rose Regeneration in the past, and this grant funded programme gave the perfect opportunity for us to get involved in a large, joint piece of work. We were delighted to be awarded the funding and attended the programme inception event together in London last month. The programme, which is a pilot scheme, aims to help Farmer Support Networks to be able to better support their farming communities, with a particular reference to health and wellbeing, which is a subject of key interest to the whole project team.” The programme will run from February – September 2020. (Photo credit: Gozha Net on Unsplash) -
Lecturer's new publication examines evolutionary factors in voting for Brexit and Trump
A new research paper by Dr Alyson Blanchard, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), examining voting behaviour in the EU Referendum and US Presidential Election of 2016 from an evolutionary perspective has been published in Evolutionary Psychological Science. As the paper explains, the year 2016 witnessed historic political change with the ascension to power of Donald Trump and the UK’s vote to leave the European Union (commonly referred to as Brexit). While research has sought to explain these once-deemed unlikely events, an evolutionary theoretical account had remained unexplored. Dr Blanchard’s work investigated whether people may have felt more fearful for their lives due to media coverage of the War in Syria between 2014 and 2016 that had led to a perceived increase in threat from terrorism and associated immigration issues. Evolutionary theory suggests that when environments seem dangerous and harsh that it is adaptive to make decisions that are optimal for the short-term. In this case, despite the long-term consequences for voting for Trump or Brexit – both campaigns promised immediate resolutions to existential threats caused by terrorism and immigration such as “Taking Back Control” and to “Make America Great Again”. The multi-study paper revealed that Trump and Brexit voters reported that they had experienced a perceived increase in existential threat in the time period 2014 and 2016, and feared terrorism and immigration respectively. Environmental factors such as social deprivation, ethnicity and education had a differential impact on vote choice, including votes for neither Trump, nor Hilary Clinton. Overall, the link between existential threats and voting is complex, but the paper affords new insight into voter psychology during the EU referendum and US presidential election.” You can find the full article in the Evolutionary Psychological Science Journal by clicking here. If you’d like to find more information our exciting and innovative doctoral and Psychology programmes vist our website or contact our Enquiries Team. -
Annual Mentor Conference Celebrates ‘Community of Learning’
Earlier this month members of the Secondary PGCE and School Direct team at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) held the first-ever fully remote Annual Mentor Conference titled 'In Changing Times, a Time to Change'. The impact of how training teachers within the COVID-19 pandemic is now shaping practices formed the inspiration for the event and throughout the four-hour conference, attended by delegates from across the partnership, presentations by leaders within the BGU Secondary team showcased the aspects of the Lockdown on professional training, and how BGU will be supporting all within continued restrictions. Professor Anna Lise Gordon (Institute of Education, Faculty of Education, Human and Social Sciences, St Mary’s University, Twickenham) gave the keynote lecture reflecting on her research-informed practices within Secondary teacher training and continued to reinforce the need for respect and relationships as the central development of contemporary resilient teachers. There were also insights by Senior leaders from partnership schools; Ms Marie Muir, Queen Elizabeth High School, Gainsborough and Mrs Jo Fieldsend, Director of Charter Teaching School Alliance, Horncastle shared their vision of how they will facilitate professional training programmes for BGU’s trainee teachers. The remote conference was created by Senior Lecturer Helen Bushell-Thornalley, who herself takes a leading role in Mentoring and Coaching for Secondary school professionals, with support from Mark Hall of BGU’s Centre for Enhancement in Learning and Teaching (CELT). Speaking after the conference Helen shared the events conclusions: “The conference’s conclusions were that BGU’s vision continues to be crafted through a community of learning. Mentoring for mentors alongside professionals in schools, for all of our teachers that we work with within our partnership schools. The recovery mentoring programme now more than ever requires a distributed community of practices.” 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. -
Artefacts, Not History: the debate about Colston's statue and Britain's imperial past
Dr W. Jack Rhoden, Programme Leader for History at BGU, discusses the role of statues in the study of history -
Self-determination explored at special symposium
Researchers from around the world attend symposium organised by BGU academic -
BGU Graduate’s Exploration of Spatial Orientation Published in Psychology Journal
Richard D'Amelio, who graduated Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) in 2018, has had his Psychology dissertation published in PSYPAG Quarterly, a postgraduate peer-reviewed journal. Working alongside his dissertation supervisor Dr Thomas Dunn, Richard's research examined the validity of the Santa Barbara sense of direction scale as a measure of spatial orientation. Richard’s experiment involved having participants estimate (via pointing) the direction of various landmarks, with examples including the BGU Library, Lincoln Cathedral, London and France, whilst located in a windowless room on BGU's campus. His findings revealed an interesting systematic bias in pointing accuracy which was dependent on the participant's gender. Speaking following the publication Richard explained what drew him to the study: “It is incredibly rewarding to see the research featured in a peer-reviewed journal. I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of sense of direction and our ability to navigate the environment (or not), so I thoroughly enjoyed applying the knowledge gained during the course of my degree to this area of study. However, the successful completion of the project was only made possible by the experience, professionalism, and advice offered by my academic supervisor, Dr Thomas Dunn, in addition to the high quality tuition delivered by the Psychology team at BGU.” Dr Thomas Dunn, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at BGU, was equally full of praise for Richard’s efforts: "I am delighted that the quality of Richard's work has been recognised and resulted in a peer-reviewed publication. This was an interesting project to work on with Richard and is reflective of the high standard of research that can be achieved by students at BGU" Please click here, if you would like to read Richard's article. If you have a subject you’re passionate about exploring then BGU is perfect place for you to start. Find out about our supportive and collaborative learning environment, by visiting our website, booking onto one of our Open Events or by speaking to our Enquiries Team. -
Lecturer Helps Develop New Risk Assessment Tool for Animal-Assisted Interventions
Dr Mirena Dimolareva, Lecturer in Psychology at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), together with colleagues and the University of Lincoln and Virginia Commonwealth University, USA has published a risk assessment tool for animal-assisted interventions in any settings. The tool is free to use for staff and practitioners nationally and internationally, in any setting (including education, nursing homes, hospitals) and aims to provide unified, standardised guidelines for animal-assisted therapy as well as animal-assisted interventions and activities. It is a comprehensive tool which takes into consideration the animal and human care and welfare. Speaking following the publication, Dr Dimolareva discussed what drove the research and what users could expect from the new tool: “Animal-Assisted Interventions in various settings have become extremely popular in recent years. Most often, therapy dog visits are organised for hospitals, nursing homes, schools and other educational settings with some scientific research showing beneficial effects. Other animals such as cats and reptiles also provide visits, but the beneficial effects are less known. As a new area of work and research there is lack of clarity around these visits and interventions. Furthermore, thorough risk assessments which consider all involved- the service users, staff, therapy animals and handlers are often overlooked. This free-to-use detailed Risk Assessment Tool was created to provide information on the risk related to Animal-Assisted Interventions as well as a Risk Assessment Template for any setting. The aim is to unify the field and thoroughly consider the safety and well-being of all involved. It is flexible and easy to use, providing the opportunity to incorporate procedures and protocols relevant to the different institutions hosting the animals and handlers.” The publication and attached tool is available for free by clicking here.. If you have a subject you’re passionate about exploring then BGU is perfect place for you to start. Find out about our supportive and collaborative learning environment, by visiting our website, booking onto one of our Open Events or by speaking to our Enquiries Team.
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