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Our students: Keeping education going during the COVID-19 crisis

In the current, unprecedented situation with COVID-19 a lot of attention is rightly being given to key workers who are keeping people safe and the most important aspects of the country running. Nurses, doctors, carers and all manner of other professions are putting themselves in harm’s way for the benefit of the rest of us. Among these are many students.

Teachers are also still very much on the front line. In their multifaceted role not only as educators, but also carers, givers of support and even entertainers, they have kept education settings open for the children of those who have no choice but to work. On top of that, they are providing e-learning on an unprecedented scale, using their innovation and imagination to deliver ongoing education, despite the challenges. Others have even used their education environment to contribute to the fight against COVID-19 by producing PPE.

Our student teachers and alumni are among this army of people who have almost flown under the radar of praise. Here, a few of our students from the Physical Education and Physical Activity course, as well as a Primary Education alumni, tell their stories of working during lockdown!

Current student teachers

Megan Belt – Foundation Degree, Physical Education and Physical Activity: “My school is still open to key worker children and we have been open this week. Yesterday I was in making Physical Education videos for the children who are at home on Google Classroom, they can then send videos back of their techniques and we can mark them.

Megan Belt

Whereas at school we had eight children in, where we delivered the PE lesson that was on Google Classroom in person to the children at the school and also set challenges for them!

We have been making tutorial videos using various sports, such as cricket. However, we didn’t want to give all our tricks away before the Easter holidays as we still need some ideas for the summer term! But the videos involve progression and we are trying to make them really fun.”

Anthony Lloyd – Foundation Degree, Physical Education and Physical Activity: “We have been running an Easter holiday school to take the pressure off parents during this time. The children did lots of arts and crafts activities where they were required to bring in their own pencil cases; we did the Joe Wicks fitness classes and also did lots of outside play. As it was the holidays, we did let the kids enjoy movies and TV shows…

Anthony Lloyd

To celebrate Easter, we also did an Easter egg hunt with pictures of eggs dotted around the playground with the member of staff with a clipboard ticking them off when the pupils found them! This enabled us to allow the children to do this activity but safely.”

Matthew Wilson – Foundation Degree, Physical Education and Physical Activity: “The Tonbridge School Centre has been converted into a Coronavirus Assessment Centre which is functioning solely off volunteers from the school and local GPs. I have been volunteering along with a number of my colleagues as we all try our best to play a part in combating this devastating virus.

Matthew Wilson

For the past couple of weeks myself and around 10 others have been working tirelessly in the school’s Science and Design Departments to produce PPE (head/face visors) for local hospitals, care homes and GPs. I can, with much joy, say that we have managed to produce and deliver 3,000 visors in the last two weeks and will be continuing production this week.

This effort was orchestrated by our fantastic senior management team and heads of the relevant departments involved at Tonbridge. So I must give credit to them and all the other volunteers involved.

Amazingly, we have also had students and their families volunteering in the recent weeks as well increasing the number of volunteers to 30+ individuals. A real sense of school community spirit has been displayed and its so reassuring to see in times like these.”

Faculty of Education Alumni

Megan Snipp – Primary Education alumni: “I graduated from Canterbury Christ church in 2018 with a BA (Hons) in Primary Education. I have to say that in a career like teaching every day is different, but this has got to be the strangest experience so far. Taking the classroom digitally was not something I was expecting when I came into the profession. It has made me appreciate what I do and how vital teachers are to the work force.

Like myself and many others, we are continuing to put ourselves at risk and heading into schools to care for the children who’s parents are out on the front line fighting this virus. Being a teacher has to be one of the most challenging yet rewarding jobs anyone can have the pleasure of doing! This year has thrown up so many different challenges and it really makes me appreciate the work that parents also do at home to ensure their children make progress in their education.

Megan Snipp

Myself and my colleagues have been digitally uploading accessible work to our school website as well as personally delivering hard copies of activities to keep the kiddies entertained over these unusual times. As a Reception teacher it’s hard not being able to give all 29 of your little ones the answers to the uncertain times that they crave. As stressful as this job can be at times, I miss my class so much and it is heartbreaking not seeing all of their faces everyday hearing of the adventures that they got up to over the weekend. For now it is important to stay positive for our children, not all their home lives are the same and their exposure to home learning will be varied so I ensure that I keep in contact with parents at all times, continue to update tapestry and I have set up a Facebook page where I read the kids their favourite stories, the comments from parents are so heartwarming it makes all this time apart seem worth while.

Soon we will be reunited with our classes and eventually things will get back to a very different ‘normal’. The education system will be changed whether that be for better or for worse, but what I do know is, I have made the right choice in career and will be forever grateful to Canterbury Christ church for preparing me for the best adventure that is a primary school teacher.”

***

Across the University we are bringing stories of how our students, staff and alumni are helping in the fight against the COVID-19 crisis. As a faculty, we are extremely proud of everything our people are doing, and we feel that if these few examples are anything to go by, the future of teaching is in very safe hands.

You can find out more about our response to the ongoing Coronavirus crisis here.

The Listening Project – part two

Two women talk while sitting in front of a laptop computer.

As the Faculty of Education works towards its Athena SWAN submission, the team are committed to what we are calling A Listening Project. We need to hear from anyone in the Faculty who has a view on equality: how we currently manage this and how we might better do this in the future. What do we mean by equality issues?  This includes how opportunities for promotion, research and staff development are open to all. This includes our culture as much as our policies. Here is our poster that we completed for the recent Faculty Wellbeing Research Day. 

Athena SWAN screenshot image

Methodologically we are, as a group, keen not only to look at the facts and figures relating to equality but to explore these qualitatively, we want to hear from you, as people, to understand what issues relating to equality are pertinent within the Faculty. What does equality feel like? 

For myself, with two recent experiences of maternity leave it was an obvious choice to opt for a focus on maternity (before, during and after), flexible working practices and transition after career breaks.  

I’m not sure whether this would always have been something I would have had an interest in. But as a woman I would have hoped that would have been the case. The fact is, our experiences shape us and our interest but they also channel us in certain directions. As a mum of two young daughters it now feels to me, essential, that wherever I can I choose to be proactive in contributing to positive change in any institutions that I am part of.  

I’m writing this just after International Women’s Day on March 8th and having attended a wonderful @WomenEdSE conference the day before where I had a chance to listen to some fantastically positive and successful women speakers. Women Ed is a grass roots movement which grew out of women in education talking, giving each other support and collaboratively addressing issues of inequity and inequality in schools, colleges and universities. Now with more than 30,000 twitter followers across the world, women are talking and listening to each other.  

Saturday’s event reminded me of just how important women are in the workplace and the importance of ensuring that our Faculty is one that facilitates us in making the biggest and best possible contributions we can. Please do think about getting involved. I’d love to hear from you. 

So, stand by for news on our focus groups and how you can get more involved in the next few weeks and months.  

Katie Clemmey 

Faculty of Education Athena Swan Self Assessment Team 

Further reading

Athena SWAN Charter

Athena SWAN at Christ Church

The Listening Project

A group taking part in a sharing and listening exercise

Foreword

As part of the Faculty’s Athena SWAN team (SAT) communication plan, we will be sharing monthly blogs written by members of the SAT. Thank you Maria for sharing the first such blog of 2020.

Kerry Jordan-Daus

Faculty of Education

Athena SWAN Lead

***

The purpose of this blog is to reflect on my understanding of the Athena SWAN and the Faculty Plan and why this is important for me. The Athena Swan Charter (2005), was initially established to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing both the careers, and employment in higher education and research of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM). Since May 2015 this charter has evolved to recognise the work undertaken to address gender equality more broadly, and not just barriers to progression that affect women.  

I initially volunteered to become part of the Faculty Athena SWAN Self-Assessment-Team (SAT), with the understanding that it was a project concerned with inclusive practice. I have since learnt that it relates specifically to gender equality.  I imagine that this could have far reaching implications in terms of exploring the Faculty’s culture and commitment to equality and inclusive practice.  As the Programme Director for the BA Primary Education Part-time route, I have seen the impact of flexible learning and flexible working for many of our students. I am committed to widening participation and enabling those who cannot access full-time study achieve their professional goals and achieve qualified teacher status through part-time and flexible study. 

In our first team meeting in December, the SAT learnt about the background and status at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) of Athena SWAN.  We already hold the institutional Athena SWAN Bronze Award (November 2016). The University goal is to progress to the institutional Silver Award. Before this can progress, all the Faculties/Schools need to have achieved at least Bronze.  Achieving Bronze requires a review against a series of criteria and the development of an action plan. As we embark on the Faculty’s plan, to submit for our Faculty Bronze award, I see this as an opportunity to celebrate inclusive practice. I am looking forward to learning more about the Faculty and how we can build on where we are; this is must be a listening project. For our plan to mean anything, in my opinion, it must be a true representation of the voices, views and actions of colleagues within the Faculty. 

At the initial meeting of the SAT working group on Tuesday December 10th 2019, there were discussions that arose from, and are perhaps inexplicably linked to inclusion and gender equality. These quite naturally included the reference to the staff profile of both the Faculty, and wider university. Currently, Bronze Award does not explicitly include professional services staff. We think this is unfortunate, but with Shelley McAuley, Faculty Manager, Operations and Quality, we are committed to including all colleagues’ voices going forward.  

The Faculty’s SAT represents a wide group of colleagues, who bring to the team different experiences and different ways of working and different personal perspectives. Whilst the SAT will be using key data sets, they have also agreed to hold focus group discussions. This affirms our commitment to the Faculty’s Athena Swan plan being based on staff voice. This is our listening project. I look forward to meeting and talking to colleagues as we move forward. 

Maria Elsam

Senior Lecturer – Primary Education (Science), Programme Director – BA Hons Primary (part-time)

Further reading

Athena SWAN Charter

Athena SWAN at Christ Church

From track to teaching: How Dr Kristy Howells draws on her cycling success through academia

Kristy Howells cycling
World Masters Cycling womens team sprint

It has been a good season on the track for Dr Kristy Howells. The Reader of Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy has a stellar record in competitive solo and team cycling over the years; 2019 was no different.

Dr Howells’ successful year in competition was topped off by being part of the team to take victory in the Women’s Team Sprint event at the British Masters Track Championships, which took place in Newport, Wales, back in June. More recently at the World Masters Track Championships, Dr Howells’ team, Sirens of the Pine, picked up silver in the Team Pursuit event.

Their time of 4.50.070 was agonisingly close to victory, ending up just 0.02 seconds off of the gold medal place. Prior to the final, Dr Howells’ team even set a new world record time in qualifying – a record that stood for five hours before nine seconds was knocked off in the gold/silver medal ride off, which demonstrates just how strong the field is in the World Masters series.

World Masters Team Pursuit

As well as team pursuit success and a 9th placing in the team sprint at World Masters, Dr Howells’ individual performance has seen her take eighth in the World 2km Individual Pursuit, and 10th in the 500m time trial. Thanks to such a strong overall performance through 2019, she has been awarded a place on Ashford Leisure Trust’s Talented Athlete Programme (for the third time, having been awarded in 2016 and 2017). Through this, Dr Howells and other talented athletes within the Ashford borough are awarded bursaries to support them in achieving their goals in their selected sports.

Applying sporting success into research and teaching

As Reader in Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy, Dr Howells applies her personal experience as an athlete to both her research and her teaching. She also recognises the importance of being a role model for both children and adults alike. By her own admission she “lives and breathes the importance of physical activity, physical education, sport and movement and fluid intake to help with physical as well as mental health”.

Unlike many academics, who have typically focused on secondary age children in their research into physical activity in the school setting, all of Dr Howells research focuses on young children. Within her doctorate she studied children the physical activity levels of primary school age. This novel focus provided useful data into how perceived and actual physical exercise matched up in a primary school setting, as well as helping to understand where these levels of physical activity sit against the WHO’s recommendations.

She continues to research and teach with a focus on Mastering Primary Physical Education and publishes both internationally and nationally on a range of areas. These include physical activity, physical education and most recently on the importance of fluid intake and young children’s understanding and knowledge of what and how much they should be drinking. This again was matched against the recommended guidance.

More recently, Dr Howells discussed the positive effect that physical activity and exercise has on the mental health of not only young people, but also on the teachers whose job it is to educate them. With teachers in such a pressured environment, she notes that it’s difficult for them to become wellbeing role models when they themselves often struggle to look after their own physical and mental wellbeing. Addressing this issue through encouraging staff to better connect with one another, take art therapy and even circuit training could be as impactful – if not more impactful – than offering additional training.

Dr Howells own involvement in sport evidently comes into play; “Being actively involved in life long participation in sport, physical activity and movement can enhance feelings of connectedness, remove the feelings of loneliness and hopelessness and thus reduce feelings of suicidal ideation,” she states.

She continues to advocate for the importance physical activity for all ages and emphasises the vital need to encourage a life wide excitement for moving, so everyone can move just a little more to ensure they have fit and healthy lives.

If you want to find out more about Dr Kristy Howells and the programmes she teaches on, visit her profile on the Canterbury Christ Church website. 

Do you know about Makaton?

Dr John-Paul Riordan writes about Makaton:

Makaton is a sign and symbol language programme used by children and adults with speech, language and communication difficulties and their families, friends, teachers, carers, etc. The signs (hand gestures) are derived from the language of the local deaf community (British Sign Language in the UK). Each sign has an associated symbol, which is a carefully designed black and white line drawing. Signs are divided into a core vocabulary of 450 concepts and a resource vocabulary of about 19,600 concepts. Makaton is intended for use to support spoken language, so the signs and symbols are used with speech and in spoken word order. Makaton use needs only low technology hand gestures and hand-drawn or printed symbols, but can be augmented using Alternative or Augmentative Communication devices. Below is an example of the symbol and sign for ‘learn’:

 

© Makaton Charity 2019 (used with permission)

Makaton is used by more than 100,000 people in the UK and has been adapted to be used in over 40 different countries (Devarakonda, 2012). It can be a really useful and fun skill to have for those working in education, healthcare, the legal system, shops, leisure, etc.

At CCCU we run Taster, Foundation and Enhancement courses every year which are open to people inside and outside the university (see the Enrichment Blackboard for details). We have a site licence for the entire Makaton Collection of 41,000 symbol and sign line drawings available to all students and staff (see ‘Makaton Collection’ on the public drive).

‘Makaton Friendly’ is an award for organisations working to become more accessible to people who use Makaton to help their communication. There are currently 360 groups worldwide with this status from Canterbury to Dubai. CCCU is the first (and only) university in the world to become Makaton Friendly. We are supporting a project led by local special schools to make Canterbury the first city in the world to become Makaton Friendly. This will involve lots of organisations joining this scheme, like nurseries and schools, care providers, charities, hospitals, cafes, libraries, museums, pubs, etc. This project will then expand to make Kent the first county in the UK to go Makaton Friendly.

Here are details of how to nominate an organisation to become Makaton Friendly. On social media please use and search for #MakatonFriendlyCanterbury. We are fundraising to support local charities who may not be able to afford the training costs. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please pass on this message.