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Students tackle food waste and social problems in ‘Make Your Mark’ challenge
Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) students recently had the chance to devise solutions to the global issue of food waste as part of the ‘Make Your Mark’ challenge. Sponsored and hosted by the Centre for Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT), and supported by BG Futures, the ‘Make Your Mark’ challenge asked the students to think of improvements that could be made at BGU to help limit food waste. While the University’s BG Lincoln Ltd. team have made great strides in this area, they still face the difficulty of balancing these efforts with customer demand for a varied menu as John Hodson, Operations Manager at BG Lincoln Ltd., explains: “Over the past 3 years we have reduced our in-house waste by 28%, resulting in savings of around £14,000 in total. To achieve this, we have focused on an efficient menu, cooking within managed periods of time to meet projected demand, however, we are aware that students desire an expansion to the menu choice.” With this in mind students were asked to think about how about the menu choice could be expanded upon in catering outlets at BGU whilst improving waste control further. They were also asked to reflect on the sustainability of any of these initiatives and whether they could be developed/run as a social enterprise venture. The group of students who took part generated a raft of ideas from different portion sizes and a “lite bites” menu, to generating compost and introducing of ‘doggy bags’ to helping the disadvantaged through food bank donations. Amongst all these fantastic concepts, the winning solution suggested the development of an online app which releases a pre-bookable, weekly food plan. Devised by student Kim Lucia Spielmanns, who won £150 for her idea, the app would allow a higher percentage of food to be pre-booked by staff and students. Speaking at the event she explained her motivation: “Even though our in-house sustainability has greatly improved, I wanted to focus on a solution which could reduce our carbon footprint and better manage the volume control institutionally. My app idea means that more meal tickets can be pre-bought which can better inform buying decisions.” Two runner-up students also won a £20 Amazon voucher for their overall contributions. All the suggestions put forth by the students have been disseminated to the relevant BGU staff and will be built upon further in the New Year. John Hodson is keen to work with students further to ensure their voice is central to the menu offer and their ideas are incorporated into future plans and will be setting up dedicated focus groups in the New Year. Linette Wallace, CELT co-ordinator, led the event and has plans to expand its impact beyond BGU: “I am pleased that this event was so well received by our students and I believe there is a growing need for a pool of social entrepreneurial talent. Next academic year, we hope to be able to run this type of challenge with a group of local secondary schools and will be sending out invitations in the New Year.” For further information on the activities being carried out by the CELT team email CELT@bishopg.ac.uk If you'd like your school to be involved in future Make Your Mark challenges, fill out the below form and a member of our Outreach Team will be in touch with more information. -
“Amazing” Carers’ Initiatives Earn “Well Deserved” Awards for BGU
Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) is delighted to announce that its Health and Social Care team and wider community have successfully been accredited with the Lincolnshire Carers Quality Awards for providing outstanding support for Carers at the University. -
BGU joins fellow East Midlands Universities in support for Armed Forces Covenant
Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) joined eight other universities from the East Midlands to celebrate the updating of their Armed Forces Covenants in a joint ceremony held at the University of Leicester last week. The revised agreements include new, clear-cut promises to support Armed Forces personnel. -
Update: Bishop Grosseteste University plans to deliver face-to-face teaching from September 2020/21
Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) is committed to ensuring that it is a place of safety and stability for every member of our community, including those continuing or starting their studies with us in September. We have been developing a clear set of plans for the delivery of the 2020/21 academic year within the context of the current Covid-19 pandemic. Based on current guidance from the UK Government, BGU anticipates on-campus teaching and learning will resume in September but with social-distancing and enhanced hygiene measures in place. This will allow BGU to deliver its programmes through a mixture of both face-to-face seminars and online learning activities, such as online lectures, guided study tasks, and tutorials. The weekly face-to-face sessions will integrate with the online learning activities, ensuring that students are keeping pace and engaging effectively with their studies. Necessary restrictions may prevent large face-to-face lectures initially during the autumn but our normal small group classes will be going ahead combined with online learning to provide a rich and supportive academic experience. Regardless of the style of learning, all our students and applicants can expect the high quality of teaching for which we are renowned. We are working closely with our Students’ Union and Student Support colleagues to deliver the social side of life at university and many of the extra-curricular opportunities that students would expect will remain available, albeit in slightly new forms. The safety of our students, staff, and wider community will remain our priority and every decision will be made with that in mind and informed by government guidance. Much of the work is still ongoing and we are in the process of finalising the precise details. We will continue to stay in contact with students, staff, and applicants throughout the summer to keep you updated and look forward to seeing everyone on campus as soon as safely possible. -
Using Shared Reading to explore the ‘telling’ of death
Earlier this year, at the 2020 Death and Dying conference, attendees came together to discuss how shared reading could explore the ‘telling’ of death. One of the goals of the workshop was to use art to capture a ‘live’ response that included something of the personal and transitory nature of the event. Aimee Quickfall, Head of Programmes for Primary Education and Early Years at BGU, Dr Clare Lawrence, Senior Lecturer in Teacher Development, and Dr John Rimmer, Senior Lecturer PGCE secondary (art and design), share their feedback on the unique and engaging experience. Using Shared Reading to explore the ‘telling’ of death Academic and Creative Responses to Death and Dying Conference, BGU 2020 Dr Clare Lawrence, Aimee Quickfall, Dr John Rimmer Shared Reading is an approach pioneered and developed by Jane Davis to use the read-aloud experience of literary texts to explore group participants’ reflections, thoughts and memories, where the text is presented as a live presence, not as something pre-read or an object of study. This Shared Reading workshop was part of a conference that had as its theme, How to tell the children, and as such used texts that explored the ‘telling’ of death, and the experience of parents’ death as understood by the (adult) child of those parents. The text chosen were Gertrude’s description of Ophelia’s death in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act IV sc. v and Charles Causley’s poem Eden Rock. Throughout the workshop Aimee Quickfall took notes visually, sketching and drawing as the participants talked. These sketches sought to capture something of the perspectives and experiences of those who took part, less to create a factual record and more to produce a live response that included something of the personal and transitory nature of the event. This method builds on the work of Heath and Chapman (2018), who believe that ‘a sketch does something different to, say, a photograph or a written field note’ (Heath and Chapman, 2018 p. 715). Back and Puwar (2012) suggest that the nature of data that is generated through sketching is different from that generated through other methods, not least because of what drawing, of necessity, leaves out. The artist must choose what to record, so that the record is always synthesised and personalised in a way that a mechanical record is not. Midgley (2011) believes that this means that drawing can capture passions and tensions in a way that other means of recording do not. The discussions during the workshop were then further synthesised by John Rimmer, who worked what was discussed into a piece of highly abstract animated art, reflecting his interpretation of the themes that were explored. These academic and Creative responses to the workshop will be shared in due course through published output. If you’d like to explore a future as part of diverse learning community, speak to a member of our Enquiries Team, or book onto an Open Event to find out how to take your first steps. References: Back, L., & Puwar, N. (2012). A manifesto for live methods: provocations and capacities. The sociological review, 60, 6-17. Heath, S., Chapman, L., & Centre Sketchers, T. M. (2018). Observational sketching as method. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 21(6), 713-728. Midgley, J. (2011). Drawing Lives-Reportage at Work. Studies in Material Thinking, (4). Retrieved, 5. -
Clap for carers: How two BGU students are helping the most vulnerable during Covid-19
As the United Kingdom continues to grapple with ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic care providers across the country have been adapting their procedures to ensure that vulnerable people receive the support they need. EarlyBird Lifestyle Support is one of these hard-working groups and they’ve been sharing how the pandemic has impacted their work. Created and run by Bishop Grosseteste University students Damian Taylor (MA Health & Social Care) and Neil Martin (MA Education with TESOL) Earlybird prides itself on being a friendly well-being service supporting people throughout the city of Lincoln and surrounding areas with tasks such as cooking, cleaning, collecting prescriptions and medication, food shopping, trips out, escorting individuals to appointments and more. Damian discusses the changes the pandemic, and associated lockdown, has brought and how the team at Earlybird have adapted to it: “We work with many of groups left most vulnerable to COVID-19, primarily our older clients but also younger individuals suffering from mental health or other disability related problems. We wore a lot of protection anyway, but we’ve had to increase our use of PPE. It’s been so difficult to find supplies for reasonable prices though. We are also finding that many of our clients find the staff wearing the full PPE quite intimidating and try our best not to scare them off. Ultimately our team works to promote independence for vulnerable people, allowing them to lead their choice of lifestyle. That choice can be so easily lost at times like this and I’m proud to think we’re helping people to keep some level of freedom. I’d like to thank all our staff for their hard work during this time. Their enthusiasm and professionalism haven’t dropped once. They’re truly the backbone to the business, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without them.” Support from EarlyBird is available to anyone in Lincolnshire and the surrounding area, to find out how they can help you visit their website, or get in contact via email at info@ebls.co.uk or on 01522424161. Damian and Neil are the one of the many success stories to emerge from the BG Futures Business and Enterprise Centre at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU). If you have got a vision for your own business but aren’t sure where to begin then the BG Futures team are the perfect place to start. With facilities and expert support available in their incubation centre, they’ll be able to get you on the road to success. Visit our website or contact them today to see how you can start your own adventure. -
‘World Changing’ Trans Student Experience Project Included in International Social Psychology Text
The CELT-LTIF funded ‘Transforming the Student Experience’ project has been featured as an example of ‘world changing’ applied research in a new book. The project was co designed and developed through a partnership between trans and non-trans students and staff and has seen many of its recommendations, including more inclusive welcome messaging and trans awareness training for staff and students, either achieved or in the process of going through the University Committee structure. Internationally renowned Social Psychologist Wendy Stainton Rogers was impressed by the project following a presentation by Sue Becker and former BGU student Ashley Ravenwood at the BPS Psychology of Sexualities Section 20th Anniversary Conference in July 2018, describing it as: “…a great project with real progress and outcomes, and a good model to follow”. In her recent book, Perspectives on Social Psychology – A Psychology of Human Being, Rogers features the project as a case study to inspire others to come together and make positive changes in their communities. The project team continue to work to ensure findings and recommendations from the project are embedded into BGU policy and practice and are currently working to publish a paper outlining their approach and findings. The project team are: Alex Dale Whistler – Education Studies and Special Educational Needs and Inclusion Jayde Williams – Primary Education with recommendation for QTS Dr Sue Becker – Programme Leader for Psychology Lyndsay Muir – Senior Lecturer Dr Sue Cordell – Head of Learning Enhancement Dr Claire Thomson – Head of the Centre for Enhancement in Learning and Teaching Dr Gianina Postavaru – Lecturer in Psychology If you’d like to become a part of BGU’s research focused community, speak to a member of our Enquiries Team or join us at one of our upcoming virtual open days. -
Exploring the role of the Arts in supporting children and families through loss
Thomasin Nicholds, Psychology Lecturer at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU), shares an exploration carried out in an experiential workshop at the recent Death and Dying Conference -
How government health advice has, or hasn’t, changed in the last 100 years
Dr Andrew Jackson, Head of Research at BGU, has published a series of articles exploring how the current circumstances in which we find ourselves offer a window into the history of both Lincoln and the wider United Kingdom*. In the second of these he examines how government health advice has, or in this case hasn’t, changed in the last 100 years. -
Sunbathing, Shopping and Social Distancing: A Cat's Life in Lockdown
Sunbathing, Shopping and Social Distancing: A Cat’s Life in Lockdown by Johnty – Head Cat of Bishop Grosseteste University It has been a strange few weeks but so far I’ve adapted well to this social distancing, in fact, as a cat, solitude is often my preference. I’m making sure to get my daily exercise and am doing my best to use each excursion wisely. If I’m not on an essential food trip I’m ensuring that my fellow felines are adhering to social distancing. I’ve come across several on my regular patrols but have quickly made it clear they should be relaxing in their own home, not mine. Most of my sunbathing spots around campus (particularly the Peace Garden) are still available, although frustratingly the IT building seems to be locked and my servants, I mean the people who work there, are not in so I can’t get to my favourite window sill (but this is a small price to pay if it means they’ll all be back sooner rather than later). On top of that I’m also making sure my human home worker is keeping his spirits up. He doesn’t always seem impressed with my shopping choices (I’m doing my best to avoid stock piling food so I’m sticking to one mouse or small bird on my daily hunting trip) but removing them from the house is certainly keeping him active. I’m also struggling to get him to follow my advice on recommended sleep time but I’m hopeful the upcoming Bank Holiday will give him a chance to try things my way. Despite my preference for peace and quiet, I am looking forward to seeing campus return to its usual bustling state. I’m certainly looking forward to more attention and joining in your photographs. Until then I hope you’re all staying well and looking after yourselves. If the move to home learning and working has given you a new animal office buddy make sure to share their picture with us! Send them to us through social media or by emailing marketingteam@bishopg.ac.uk
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