Hello everyone,
It’s been a while since I wrote a blog post for the website, so apologies for the lack of updates and news. As many of you will know, we sadly lost a wonderful colleague and friend earlier this month this month and this has been a huge blow to the social work team. Rosanne was an enthusiastic and valued senior lecturer and made a large and positive difference in the lives of many people in the region and beyond. In her role as programme leader for the BSc Social Work she supported many students to qualification, as well as being a positive, thoughtful and calming influence within the programme team. She will be missed by all of us here. We are thinking of her and our thoughts are also with her family and friends at this very sad time.
The new semester has now started and we have welcomed a new cohort of social work students to the university, under the guidance of Justine Ogle who has taken over the role of programme leader for the BSc. As usual, we are busy and have been involved in lots of different activities and events. I’ve provided an update on some of them below and also included some information about upcoming events that you might want to get involved with. I hope to see you at one of them.
Sarah (Sarah.Lonbay@Northumbria.ac.uk)
Social Work NU Conference…
We held our annual Northumbria University Social Work Conference here in September. It was really well attended and a thoroughly enjoyable day. Some of you delivered workshops on the day and the feedback for these was terrific – well done to all of you and thank you.
Educator by Experience training…
We have also had a day of training which was well attended with quite a few new faces. Steve and David did an excellent job of running the training which was described in the feedback as “friendly, open, easy learning”, “informative and interactive”, and “really useful”, amongst other positive things. A big thank you to David and Steve and to everyone who attended the day. Thanks to NESWA also for funding the project to develop the training. If you’re interested in viewing the slides and materials used you can find them on this website or get in touch with me for further information. If you missed the training, don’t worry! We will be running it again in January so just get in touch for more information or watch your emails if you are already on the contact list.
MA social work trip to Athens…
Some of our MA Social Work students are visiting Athens soon and have been working hard to fund raise before they leave. The money they raise will go towards resources for refugees and we are enormously proud of them. I have been promised some pictures and a report when they get back so watch this space for further news about their trip.
Educator by Experience Committee…
Behind the scenes a lot of work is done to support the input of Educators by Experience and at the heart of this is our committee. Chaired by Steve O’Driscoll, this committee has a strategic overview of the development and implementation of the involvement of Educators by Experience at Northumbria University. The group helps to raise the profile of people’s needs, views and interests in the way that they are engaged within core elements of the social work programme. We meet quarterly, but people are free to attend as many or as few of the meetings as they like and we aim to keep them informal and engaging for everyone. Our next committee meeting will take place on the 13th November from 1-3pm and if you would like to join us then check your email for details, or get in touch to let me know you’d like to be added to the contact list.
Social Work Whisperings
Once a quarter, the Educator by Experience group get together to discuss topical issues in a friendly and non-formal manner. Everyone is welcome and our next Whisperings get together will be on the 13th November, from 3.30pm-4.30pm where we will be discussing mental health. If you’d like to join us, again check your email for details or let me know that you’d like to be added to the email contact list.
Social Work Whisperer
Don’t forget you can contribute to this site! If you’d like to share something for the website please just get in touch with me and let me know.
