Prizes for staff and student collaborations

Staff and student collaborations promoting inclusion to reduce awarding gaps, developing community gardens and delivering climate education to Reading schools have all been recognised by the University.

Three collaborative projects have been named as winners in the 2023 University Collaborative Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Teaching and Learning. This annual award scheme recognises and rewards groups of staff and students who have made exceptional contributions to the student learning experience. Each team is awarded a prize of £3000.

Congratulations to the winning project teams.

Inclusion Consultant Scheme

The Inclusion Consultant scheme was established in January 2022 with the aim of bringing together colleagues and underrepresented students to improve colleagues’ understanding of the challenges faced by students from diverse backgrounds and to propose practical strategies for creating more inclusive learning environments, thereby reducing awarding gaps.

A diverse group of Inclusion Consultants was recruited and trained to take part in weekly consultations with colleagues across the University, facilitated by team members in Student Services. The scheme has been positively received by staff and students and has led to a wide range of outputs, including: the co-production of resources for the Decolonising the Curriculum toolkit; support with converting a disused office in the School of Agriculture, Policy and Development into a quiet space for religious and neurodiverse students; and guides for widening participation students on how to navigate university life.

Future developments to the scheme will focus on wider promotion and dissemination, both internally and across the sector.

The project involved Mathew Haine, Drew Taylor and Martina M. De Burgos (all Student Services), Tarek Ahmed, Ikraan Arab, Lucy Bestow, Sarah Byrne, Lucy Coombs, Mustafa Demir, Rebecca Dillingham, Tanya D Souza, Aliya Emiabata, Rahasia Mae Ferrer, Reiowyn Ferrer, Chloe Galapin, Anastasia Gale, Gabe James, Nassib Jawad, Sacha John-Baptiste, Ayishia Jones, Jesse Koranteng, Musab Mabruk, Faith Makanjuola, Santhiya Neasarajan, Jas Notta, Angel Oduah, Kolatat Phaiboonnukulkjj, Emma Pullen, Selina Smadi, Charity Smith, Danai Theodoropoulou and Gaia Toxiri (all student Inclusion Consultants).

Entangled Environments: Working with community gardens in Stage 1 architectural design

Staff and students on the BSc and MArch Architecture programmes collaborated with the Museum of English Rural Life; Food4Families, which has created 25 food growing gardens in Reading; and Nature Nurture, a Reading-based organisation that connects people with wild spaces, to re-develop an architectural design module for BSc Architecture Stage 1 students.

The module asked students to work with these partners on live sites to design structures which celebrate the work of community gardens. Their designs were built at full scale and placed in public spaces in Reading to prompt wider public engagement. Films of these interventions were subsequently screened in the Broad Street Mall Urban Room and have been used to champion community gardens in policy discussions.

Through this module, students placed their own expertise and time at the service of local community groups, directly engaging with initiatives that address issues of biodiversity loss and food poverty to understand what they can do to tackle climate crisis now and in their future work as architectural designers.

The project involved Amy Butt, Darren Bray, John Harding, Juan Leiva, Arjun Rajah, Vsevolod Kondratiev-Popov, Jen Forakis, Phil Graham, Penélope Plaza, Louise Humphreys (all School of the Built Environment), Rhi Smith (University Museums and Special Collections Services), Anna Knight Gonzalez, Torin Kenny, Rosie Clark, Bethany Mettam, Gina Dinesen, Kim Pearce, Paulina Lemos, Daniel Hellyer (all March student Module Support Assistants), Natalie Ganpatsingh (External partner – Nature Nurture), Dave Richards (External partner – World Education Berkshire (RISC) Garden Coordinator), and Kath Burton and Beth Scott (both External partner – RISC Garden Volunteers).

Creation and embedding of an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Curriculum Framework for Climate and Sustainability Education across the Institute of Education Programmes (Early Years, Primary, Secondary Postgraduate and Undergraduate)

This collaboration brought together a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, including colleagues and students in the IoE and other academic schools, local partnership schools and external organisations, to create and implement an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) Climate Education and Sustainability Curriculum Framework.

The framework evolved from previous work to develop the National Climate Education Action Plan and builds on other initiatives within the IoE including the Bee Hotel and Bee Meadow living laboratory. It is being taught across all ITE programmes at Reading during its pilot year 2022-23 and its impact is also cascading to students on non-ITE programmes.

The initial benefits of the initiative can be seen in student work and through student feedback. A systematic evaluation of the project is underway and plans are in place to disseminate the outcomes both within the University and at a national level. This includes a showcase event taking place on 14 June 2023 for which colleagues can book a place.

The project involved Jo Anna Reed Johnson, Nasreen Majid, Sarah Marston, Andrew Happle, Carol Fuller, Catherine Foley, Suzy Tutchell, David Dobraszczyk, Jo Elsey, Nick Davies, Emily Yearsley, Will Bailey Watson, Mel Jay, Graham Goldthorpe, Baz James, Martin Sutton, Caroline Foulkes, and Will Prowse (all Institute of Education), PGCE Secondary students: Netty Gunn, Cait Greenwood, Emily Keenan, Isabelle Stevenson, Munib Aziz and Bradley Alma (all PGCE Secondary students), Phillipa Heath and Catherine Smith (both Museum of English Rural Life), Marco Bernardini (Research Assistant), Lynn Hawkins (Furze Platt Senior School), Professor Simon Potts, Konstantinos Tsiolis and Joris Rocks (all School of Agriculture, Policy and Development), Professor Andrew Charlton-Perez (School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences), Professor Sylvia Knight (Royal Society of Meteorology, Visiting Professor to the IoE)