2 members of the Partners in Learning team from the Learning and Teaching Strategy project took the opportunity to present their work to Prof. Helen James and her senior management team – needless to say there were a few nerves.

My stomach was in knots as we approached the meeting room. A group of very important people with the job of leading the academic side of the University were about to pay very close attention to what I have to say to them. What if I stumble my words? What if I freeze? What if I waffle on about something totally irrelevant?

We entered the room. Smiling, friendly faces greeted us and I breathed a sigh of relief. They couldn’t have been more welcoming – each staff member introduced who they are and what their position is, within the University.

It was time to begin – we’re up first…

The presentation was a 10-15 minute long update of what we’ve been up to so far. We updated the Pro-Vice Chancellor on everything we had been doing over the last few months; from initial ideas, to the unique student-led approach of the project, the creation of the handbook, the research we did, our achievements and ended the presentation with what’s to come next.

The presentation went smoothly and I’m confident enough to say that the staff enjoyed our presentation and considered what we had to say as highly significant.

After the presentation we took questions. We were asked by Helen James (Pro-Vice-Chancellor) about how we got staff involved with the project, Chris Stevens (Director of QSO) asked about the sustainability of the project and how we will ensure long-term impact and Ken Powell (Director of Curriculum) asked if the Prezi we showed might be made available on blackboard, what materials we would use on our webpages and how we might publish our work – all of which we were able to answer confidently…with a couple of welcome additions from Phil, our project coordinator!

After the Q&A session Helen and the team gave us some really positive feedback about the presentation and the overall project. They recognised the value of Student Engagement activity as a whole and were particularly impressed by the “deep and genuine partnership between staff and students that your project has achieved”  – Chris Stevens, Director of QSO

I left the meeting feeling so much more confident for the conference at the end of June. Something we spoke about when creating this short presentation was how we can build on it for the June conference, reassured that we have some great material I’m excited to develop it further for the 40 minute presentation. It has also been highly beneficial to receive such high praise from those in such high up positions – a little bit of ego-boost if you like and very reassuring as the project nears completion.

Georgia Horsley