Applications are now open for our BA (Hons) Advancing Practice top-up degree!
With four pathways (Early Years Professional, Inclusive Education, Learning and Education, and Mental Health and Wellbeing of Children and Young People) the top-up degree has been designed for those who want to advance their practices for effective working with children, young people, their families and communities. As with our foundation degrees, the course is delivered using a blended learning approach. Students are taught through a combination of face-to-face teaching, live online learning, critical engagement workshops, student conferences, tutorials and guided online learning alongside independent study time.
We will be running another drop-in information session very soon, but in the meantime current foundation degree students can access the recording from our previous information session in The Learning Institute area on Blackboard. |
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It's the final countdown for our trainee teachers, who are now back at their original placement schools, and in the midst of completing the last nine weeks of their training. We are looking forward to celebrating with them at our graduation event at The Alverton Hotel on Friday 1st July!
Our teacher training routes are now open for applications for a September 2022 start, when we will be delivering primary teacher training in partnership with the University of Worcester. Training is school-based, with placements in Westcountry Schools Trust (WeST) settings, as well as partner schools in Cornwall, and will include 14 days of online learning and 16 days face-to-face. |
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If you want to know more, drop in to one of our upcoming hybrid information sessions on Thursday 26th May or Friday 10th June (both 5.00pm - 7.00pm). You can join us in person at Morley Meadow Primary School in Plymstock or online via Zoom. |
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Foundation Degree updates
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Our foundation degree students are also in the home stretch now, with only a handful of taught sessions left for this academic year. Level 4 students are currently learning about Promoting the Enabling Environment, with a mix of face-to-face delivery in their centre groups and online sessions in their degree groups ensuring they can relate the topic to their specific practice. Meanwhile, our Level 5 students are looking at their final degree-specific modules - Supporting Learning in the Early Years Curriculum, Assessing and Evaluating Provision to Promote the Inclusion of Individuals and Groups, Supporting Learning Within the Curriculum, and Therapeutic Relationships and Interpersonal Communication.
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Recruitment is now well underway for September 2022, and we are delighted to have three new centres for our foundation degrees - Banbury, Feltham and Westbury - in addition to our existing centres in Exeter, Northolt, Plymouth, Poole, Roche, Roskear, Southwark, Tewkesbury and Winterbourne.
We are currently planning the next round of face-to-face information sessions, so please do keep an eye on our website, and if you know someone who would be interested in studying with The Learning Institute, tell them to get in touch!
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Many congratulations to BA (Hons) Advancing Practice student Nicolle, who has been shortlisted for the Worcester Students' Union Course Rep of the Year award! |
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These awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding work of individual students, student groups and volunteers at the University of Worcester. Winners will be announced at the TeamWorc Awards Ceremony, which is taking place on Wednesday 18th May at Sixways Stadium. Best of luck Nicolle, from everyone at #TeamTLI!
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Women's Aid have produced a prevention toolkit called Expect Respect that encourages conversations with children and young people on the root causes that lead to violence, as well as educating young people on gender based  violence.
The toolkit uses age appropriate activities that can be utilised in a range of spaces and covers the ages of 4-18, but can be adapted for adults too. Each session in the toolkit is designed to be active, fun and engaging, but also challenging. Whilst not all of the session plans raise domestic abuse directly, they have been written using themes found to be effective in tackling domestic abuse.
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Mental Health Awareness Week
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This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. The Mental Health Foundation started Mental Health Awareness Week 21 years ago, and they continue to set the theme, organise and host the week each year.
The theme this year is loneliness - raising awareness of the impact of loneliness on our mental health and the practical steps we can take to address it. To coincide with the week, the Mental Health Foundation have released their new report, 'All the lonely people', which explores everything to do with mental health and loneliness. You can access the report and a whole range of other resources on the Mental Health Foundation website - click on the link below for more information. |
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Mental Health Awareness Week 2022 - Loneliness
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The latest in our series of articles introducing key members of #TeamTLI staff.
Zoe Nixon - Academic Professional (Research)
Zoe has spent over 10 years working  and researching within Children’s Services, with a particular interest in childhood adversity and interdisciplinary approaches to working with children and young people. Significant aspects of her work include development of positive professional relationships to promote specialised knowledge and explore future research themes, across professions, to encourage sustained improved outcomes for all children.
More recently, Zoe has taken a lead strategic role to evolve the Research and Development sector of The Learning Institute. The development of The Learning Institute Research Interest Groups (RIGs) and support services are particularly of note. At present there are RIGs focussing on Safeguarding, Child Adversity, Domestic Violence, Menopause, Natural Schooling and Widening Participation.
Zoe leads and supports a number of research projects including the Erasmus+ Adverse Childhood Experiences and Interprofessional Working project (2018-2021), and has extended the Learning Institute’s work in this field designing and launching the Longitudinal Adverse Childhood Experience project (LACE) and a Trust Exclusion Project. She is also the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) for The Learning Institute and a safeguarding governor at two primary schools.
In her spare time Zoe is the manager of a local Foodbank and when not busy with that will be found with her feet in the soil at the allotment!
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The Learning Institute, in partnership with the University of Worcester, is offering some new short courses from September 2022.
These courses are an excellent choice if you are considering a new career or a career change, and are designed with employers to help you learn new skills and gain professional knowledge. The collaborative nature of the courses encourages you to develop networks with other professionals in the education and children’s services sector while gaining a University of Worcester certificate of credit that you could potentially use towards a degree if you do one in the future.
Each short course follows the same structure to enable consistency and involves students in learning new content and discussing this to deepen understanding and review knowledge. Through blended learning, students will access the short course via an in-person full day conference, weekly live-online study sessions and tutor mediated online study. The virtual learning environment (Blackboard) will be the basis for working with online materials used to facilitate tutor mediated online learning prior to and following each live-online study session.
These short courses will be eligible for tuition fee loans in a 3-year trial as part of the government's preparations for the Lifelong Learning Entitlement.
We are intending to run the following short courses from September 2022 (with some courses available from January 2023):
| Level |
Short Course Title |
| 4 |
Creating enabling environments |
| 4 |
Mental health and wellbeing of children and young people |
| 4 |
Supporting children and young people's development and learning |
| 4 |
Supporting communication, speech and language in the early years |
| 4 |
Working with parents to support children and young people's learning |
| 5 |
Autism and complex needs |
| 5 |
Coaching and mentoring |
| 5 |
Early years curriculum, assessment and planning |
| 5 |
Inclusive approaches to supporting learners with SEND |
| 5 |
Motivation to learn and learning behaviours |
| 5 |
Planning for learning |
| 5 |
Therapeutic approaches to supporting children experiencing adversity |
| 6 |
Children and young people, the environment and sustainable futures |
| 6 |
Multiagency working |
| 6 |
Psychology of teaching and learning |
| 6 |
Supporting the mental health of children and young people with SEND |
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Last chance for a #TeamTLI hoodie!
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If you would be interested in a #TeamTLI hoodie, please do let us know as soon as possible so that we can ensure it is viable.
We estimate the cost to students being around £28-£30 per hoodie (please note, no profit is being made by TLI). The student hoodies would have The Learning Institute logo on the front, your centre or degree title on one sleeve, and your class (e.g. 'Class of 2022') on the other sleeve. |
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We love hearing what our students have been getting up to outside of taught sessions. This month, we're sharing some photos from our Poole BAAP group, who went out for a meal at their local Slug and Lettuce to mark the last taught session of their degree!
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Upcoming CPD: Inclusive PE
Tuesday 28th June (1.30pm to 4.30pm) at Tregadillett Primary School
In this workshop we will look at a variety of ways in which you can include all children in your PE and school sport. We will look at the Fun Fit programme, which is designed to improve a child's co-ordination and underlying postural stability and balance. It is delivered in school for 15 minutes ideally each day. Fun Fit is aimed at children exhibiting poor motor skills e.g. difficulties with PE, tendencies to trip or bump into things, poor handwriting skills, problems with dressing, using cutlery, concentration and low self-esteem. We will also look at other programmes which support including all pupils in PE. Ideally this course is aimed at the SENCo, PE Subject Leaders or TAs.
New 2022-23 Arena Programmes Released
Exciting news! All of Arena's 2022-23 programmes are now live on the Arena website. New courses include Climate Change Days and Wild Tribe Growing Zone, and there are also old favourites like Alternative Sports Days. Click on the button below to find out more about Arena's offers including early bird specials.
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The Learning Institute: Foundation Degree information sessions
Wednesday 25th May (4.00pm - 6.00pm): Banbury
Tuesday 31st May (10.30am - 11.30am): Online
Tuesday 14th June (4.00pm - 6.00pm): Plymouth
The Learning Institute: Get Into Teaching information sessions
Saturday 14th May (10.00am - 11.00am): Online
Thursday 26th May (5.00pm - 7.00pm): Hybrid (Plymstock and online)
Friday 10th June (5.00pm - 7.00pm): Hybrid (Plymstock and online)
Other events
Monday 9th - Sunday 15th May: Mental Health Awareness Week and ME Awareness Week
Monday 9th - Sunday 22nd May: Foster Care Fortnight
Thursday 12th May: Nurses' Day
Sunday 15th May: National Children's Day UK
Monday 16th - Friday 20th May: Walk to School Week
Monday 16th - Sunday 22nd May: Dementia Action Week
Tuesday 24th - Monday 30th May: National Epilepsy Week
Monday 30th May: World MS Day
May is also National Walking Month and Share A Story Month.
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