In this term’s issue of CONNECT, find out more about some of our Professional Services teams, the Minister of State for Food, Farming and Fisheries visit to Shuttleworth College, details about this year’s Staff Conference and more.
As always, if you would like to add your staff news to the next issue of CONNECT, please send your articles and photos to communications@bedford.ac.uk no later than 11 October 2023.
June
Wednesday 28:
HE Conference
Thursday 29:
The Bedford Sixth Form Welcome Day
Friday 30:
Staff Conference
July
Wednesday 5:
Central Bedfordshire College Welcome Day
August
Monday 21:
All staff return to work
Thursday 17: A Level Results Day
Tuesday 22:
Professional Development Day
Wednesday 23:
Course Manager Toolkit
Thursday 24:
GCSE Results Day
GCSE Advice Day
Friday 25:
GCSE Advice Day
W/C Monday 28 (Dates TBC):
All Staff Meeting
Tuesday 29:
Combined Teacher Toolkit (All sites)
Wednesday 30:
Combined Teacher Toolkit (All sites except the Sixth Forms)
Teacher Toolkit (The Sixth Forms)
September
Friday 1:
Advanced Practitioner Toolkit
Monday 4:
Term starts (Full-time Students)
Monday 18:
Term starts (Part-time Students)
Monday 25:
Term starts (HE Students)
October
Tuesday 3:
The Bedford Sixth Form Open Day
Thursday 5:
Tresham College, Kettering Open Day
Tuesday 10:
The Corby Sixth Form Open Day
Tresham College, Wellingborough Open Day
Tuesday 17:
Tresham College, Corby Open Day
Monday 23 - Friday 27:
October Half Term
“Our apprenticeship provision has improved against the national trend. We lead the way regionally on WorldSkills. We have received national awards for inclusion, marketing, research and teaching. Everyone has played a part in that success, thank you.”
It is really important that our students don’t just achieve their qualifications, but also get a sense of how world-class their skill level is. For that reason, we encourage participation in national competitions and especially WorldSkills UK competitions, based on global skills standards. Our Group lead on this is Jo Baxter and we have enthusiastic champions like Paula Hobday, James Woolley and William Gibbs taking part. I am delighted that this year we had 67 WorldSkills entrants, making us easily the biggest contributor in the Eastern region. Let’s keep giving our students these opportunities and smash the 100 barrier next year. Partly as a result of his WorldSkills involvement, IT lecturer Daniel Hulatt has won Bronze for the Pearson UK FE Lecturer of the Year award, previously won last year by our Art & Design lecturer Steph Lee-Vae.
The national apprenticeship achievement rates for 2021-22 have now been published and show that our Group is improving fast when nationally achievement has been falling. Almost half of all apprenticeship providers are now in some form of government intervention. We are not, and we are now third in the table of the biggest colleges and third in the regional table. This shows excellent progress under the overall direction of Debbie Houghton and Tanya Baney.
We are very proud that Shuttleworth College alumnus Mark Spencer is now a government minister, appropriately looking after food and farming. It was therefore lovely to be able to invite him back in May to see his old college, and show him the investment we have made in the facilities. We are continuing to invest heavily in the farm and student residences. Maybe we need to put a blue plaque on the door of his old room! (see page 15 to read more about his visit to us)
This has been another year of success despite the poor and unfair funding colleges continue to receive. The merger with Central Bedfordshire College has created a regional skills powerhouse, enabling us to weather the poor funding climate. We are developing wonderful new facilities in Bedford and Corby, and begun to do the same at Shuttleworth. Our apprenticeship provision has improved against the national trend. We lead the way regionally on WorldSkills (see left). We have received national awards for inclusion, marketing, research and teaching. Everyone has played a part in that success, thank you.
As we reach the end of the teaching year we now need to ensure all our students achieve, progress or secure great destinations. Secondly, we need to ensure we are organised for next year, enrolling students as soon as we can, and ensuring the timetables are complete so teaching staff can prepare in confidence.
The Corporation have had a busy term, both in terms of their formal business cycle but also with student representative lunches, meetings with staff and a ministerial visit (with a diversion to see Carl and his charges in the ZEC!)
We welcome Angelique Wright (previously a governor at CBC) who will join the Resources Committee.
This role also inevitably involves goodbyes and Sharon De Leonardis left the Board in March. Sharon was an active governor for nearly four years and greatly increased the profile of EDI on board agendas as well as supporting internal groups. I will miss Sharon’s energy and passion on the Board, and will continue to work with TBCG Board and other FE boards to increase awareness of the benefits of harnessing different perspectives in decision making. I’m sure Sharon will continue to support TBCG.
I also need to formally convey the news of Linda Hockey’s death on 31 March 2023. Some of you will have worked with Linda as she served as a governor for circa 10 years, finally relenting and becoming the first female chair of the Corporation in 2016-2017, taking us smoothly through the Tresham merger. Most of you will not have met Linda but on her retirement from the Corporation Linda agreed to Chair the Board of BCPS Limited and did so for a number of years. In that role she was the driving force behind positive changes to the BCPS contracts. A reminder that not everyone who influences our lives for the better are clearly visible to us.
Linda was a mentor, a coach, a huge support, someone I considered a true friend and ally. We had planned a lunch that never happened and I was saving so much to tell her. For the sake of your own wellbeing and for someone else, make the time to take your own version of that lunch soon, encourage and inspire each other, or just have a laugh.
The Wellbeing working group has undertaken a wide range of work in recent times and it is currently developing a programme of activity for the 2023/2024 academic year. Work planned includes exploring physical health, compassionate leadership and being able to bring your whole self to work. There are a number of activities being planned across all strands and we are always seeking people to support the work of each strand of activity. If you would like to be involved, please contact Robin Webber-Jones via email at rwebber-jones@bedford.ac.uk
One of the key strands of work focuses on mental health.
With Mental Health Awareness week held in May under the theme of anxiety, it is clear that the ongoing ‘cost of living crisis’ is raising levels of anxiety in all of us to some degree or another.
The Mental Health Foundation recently carried out a survey on “stress, anxiety and hopelessness over personal finances”. Results showed that a quarter of adults felt so anxious that it stopped them doing things they wanted to, some or all of the time, and six in ten felt the same at least some of the time.
With the current situation not showing any signs of immediate change, the Foundation have issued a number of resources and links to support people. Here are a few of the key ones:
The Cost of Living and your Mental Health
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/exploremental-health/blogs/cost-living-and-yourmental-health
Help for Households
https://helpforhouseholds.campaign.gov.uk/
Working Out Your Budget
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-andmoney/budgeting/budgeting/work-out-yourbudget/
Cooking on a Budget
https://www.bda.uk.com/food-health/letsget-cooking/cooking-at-home/cooking-on-abudget.html
Preventing Mental Health Problems
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/exploremental-health/a-z-topics/prevention-andmental-health
Source: The Mental Health Foundation www.mentalhealth.org. uk
As we grow as a Group, in this issue we take the opportunity to share a brief introduction to some of our Professional Services departments, how to get in touch and a summary of how they can help you.
Covering all aspects of data protection, ranging from subject access requests (SARs), breach reporting and supporting asset owners/Heads of Department with advice regarding compliance with regulation. The CIS Director acts as the Group’s Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) and chairs TBCG’s GDPR Action Group.
The team is based at Bedford College and looks after Student Record systems and reporting from these systems, such as:
• ProSolution, ProMonitor, ProPortal and ProMetrix and user access
• ProAchieve, OneGrade and Grofar
• Ad hoc reporting
There are Registry teams based at Bedford to support Bedford College, Kettering to support Tresham College, MIS at Dunstable support Central Beds College and Data Returns look after the ILR and regulatory government returns. They look after the student data so please contact them about anything relating to:
• Student data including student details, enrolment, transfers and withdrawals
• Timetabling and room bookings
• Registers
• Curriculum Planning
Across the teams, their aim is to provide high quality data that supports the academic areas and complies with government funding rules while optimising the funding income for the Group.
To read more about CIS, including key contacts and how to get in touch with them, please visit their CONNECT intranet page
The Customer Contact & Admissions Team support the Group to advise our application and enrolment targets. They review and monitor the applicant interview process to ensure that applicants receive a high-quality experience across the Group. They also process all applications in line with the Group’s Admissions policy and timescales. They have strong interrelationships with the curriculum teams. They ensure applicants are eligible for funding which also includes gaining transcripts of qualifications. They are responsible for the managing the HE, UCAS and Clearing processes and procedures.
They review all the Group’s application forms and are responsible for the applicant recruitment journey. They are also responsible for the FE and HE progressions processes. They provide applicant and application reports including year-on-year comparisons.
They manage the Enquiry CRM system and have recently launched their new ChatBot, which you named Charlie. Alongside all of this, they work closely with CIS to manage ProSolution.
The Customer Contact Team across the Group support, advise and guide customers; whether that be current and potential students, staff, external organisations, businesses, parents and carers.
They keep their customers at the heart of everything they do, and ensure they provide a professional, reliable and friendly service to everyone they interact with. They endeavour to provide their customers with the most up-to-date information, high-quality front of house service, advice and guidance.
No two days are the same... to read more about a typical day for The Customer Contact Team visit their intranet pages
The Digital Technologies Directorate are made up of three teams; Digital Experience, IT and Reprographics.
• The Digital Experience Team support and promote the development and use of learning and information technologies such as Microsoft Teams and Moodle. They also research existing technologies and are currently exploring Google Classroom, VR/AR, and Artificial Intelligence. The team can be contacted on: digitalexperienceteam@bedford. ac.uk
• The IT team looks after the network, PCs, software, classroom screens etc. They have a range of roles and services in the team, from technicians, to specialists in areas such as the Cloud, security, and governance. If you have any issues or questions, please contact the team via the helpdesk on itsupport@bedford.ac.uk or Tel: 01234
291999 (Ext: 5999)
• The Reprographics teams are located at the Bedford College and Tresham College, Kettering campuses and help with larger scale printing or photocopying needs that can’t be accommodated by the local printers. They also look after the post, franking, and some deliveries at these locations. They can be contacted by visiting them on the ground floor of the Tower Block or behind the IT office in Kettering.
Over the last year, significant strides have been made in improving our IT infrastructure by implementing the OneDrive, MFA for staff and students, Teams telephony, etc.
They’ve also improved our IT security posture, achieving Cyber Essentials (CE) certification. This has led to some tensions with hardware/software that was used
historically, but couldn’t be used going forward, due to security concerns and non-compliance with CE. A Digital Steering Committee (DSC) now meets regularly to review new initiatives and make collective decisions to balance the risk and reward of implementing new proposals.
Sometimes the Group isn’t using the latest versions of software. This is usually down to the infrastructure not being able to adapt quickly enough or it can’t meet the specifications of the new software. They are looking to address this for the future (see below). Equally, sometimes it isn’t appropriate to upgrade to the latest versions due to the cost benefit or the industry not using the latest versions. There is a Capital bid process in place with requests going to Principals. Where these requests require IT equipment, these will also be reviewed at DSC.
The Digital Technologies Directorate are going through a period of significant change, (particularly within the IT department) to update the infrastructure to provide a more, resilient, reliable and scalable infrastructure which is fit for purpose for the strategic aims of the Group. Once in place, it will allow them to build our capabilities and ensure we are able to use the latest versions of software (where appropriate) and offer capabilities such as Virtual Reality (VR), AI and other technologies, without the need to worry about bandwidth or specification issues. You can read more about the teams Top 10 Priorities for this summer in this CONNECT intranet news article.
To read more about the Digital Technologies Directorate, including key contacts and how to get in touch with them, please visit their CONNECT intranet pages: IT Services, Repographics and the Digital Experience Team.
As Group Head of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging (EDI) Ashley Spiers always wants to hear from you - even if you think it’s something he won’t want to hear! If you have general comments, questions, ideas and suggestions related to fairness and equality, you can email him on aspiers@bedford.ac.uk or EDI@bedford. ac.uk
EDI is for everyone. You could make a huge difference to someone by getting involved in our work; maybe there is something you would like to see here that we don’t yet do. The best way to get involved is to be part of one of our diversity forums; so feel free to join one, or come along and ask questions - whether your passion is Disability, LGBTQ+ inclusion, Men’s health, Race Equality, Religion, or Women’s wellbeing.
To join one of our forums, please use the links below to contact the relevant forum chair.
• disAbility Advisory Group - Louise Bedworth
• LGBTQ+ Forum - Phil Wells & Naomi Horn
• Men’s Health Forum - Shaun Wilson & Daniel Twigger
• Multi-Faith Forum - Abby Smith & Mike Yates
• Race Equality Forum - Suzanie Knight & Pamela Knowles
• Unity Forum - Ashley Spiers
• Women’s Network - Hayley WedgwoodSetchell & Bev Holloway
Each department also has EDI Ambassadors to ensure that everything that takes place in all areas of the organisation is inclusive and free from discrimination/inequality. Their work also includes the following;
• Podcasts and Explainers
• Activities and Events
• Working Groups
• Policy and Guidance
• Training Sessions
• Lunch & Learns
• EDI Bulletins
• The Diversity Calendar
• EDI Resources
• Development Programmes.
They aim to provide a welcoming, friendly and safe environment for all, where every person should have the opportunity for full involvement in what takes place, and where everyone’s contribution to the college should be valued and respected.
You can read more about EDI on their CONNECT intranet page here.
The Estates & Facilities department plays an essential role in the overall running of all campuses across the Group.
Their responsibilities include:
Estates & Facilities Services – including physical security, regular patrols and ID checks across our campuses, assessing cleaning and housekeeping standards, car park management, portering, management of deliveries, and office moves.
Grounds Maintenance – including grass & hedge cutting, weed spraying, pruning shrubs, mulching, watering, clearing of leaves, and salting of paved areas during colder weather, development of planting schemes across sites, upgrading and development of grassed areas and planted areas.
Technical Maintenance - regular statutory regime to ensure our buildings comply with current safety legislation, managing reactive maintenance requests received via the Estates and Facilities Helpdesk, schedule of annual condition checks for all buildings.
Statutory Compliance – to assist in the safe operation of our sites; the Estates and Facilities department oversee the fire management, risk assessments, emergency procedures and fire strategy for the organisation. They also manage all systems and procedures associated with Asbestos and Legionella.
Contracts Management – their responsibilities extend to the management of the contractual services, including, but not limited to the following:
• Cleaning, window cleaning and waste disposal
• Student transport for Shuttleworth & maintenance of minibuses and vehicles
• Maintenance agreements for all plant rooms, equipment, fire alarms, intruder alarms and CCTV.
Energy & Sustainability Management –
Estates and Facilities are environmentally aware, supporting sustainable energy. They also manage all utility contracts for the business, including electricity supplies, gas and water.
Property & Project Management –
They handle the management of the organisations properties, ranging from lease agreements and licences to dilapidation; tenancy agreements, rents and rates. They provide the organisation with a Project Management service for both new build and refurbishment capital projects.
To read more about Estates and Facilities, including key contacts and how to get in touch with them, please visit their CONNECT intranet page.
The library team are very happy to help your students with any study skills support they need. They will familiarise them with college systems, and help them adapt to write academically, deliver presentations or understand the intricacies of referencing and citation (and more). Available as individual or small group sessions, or to your class in-person or via MS Teams, bringing a new face and voice to their learning experience.
Students have access to the library’s wide range of books and online resources, and it provides a space for independent learning, or quiet supported learning for groups (no timetabling of lessons or teaching within the libraries). The Group’s libraries are first and foremost a student resource and they cater to a variety of needs and learning styles. Quieter areas and spaces are available for students to discuss assignments or work collaboratively on projects.
Students are welcome to drop in to the libraries and use a desk, laptop or a PC when it is convenient for them. For class bookings, where their library offer these, you will need to contact your campus library team in advance to check availability. Not every site supports these and at those which can, the libraries experience high demand. They do not routinely offer library spaces for exam use and no group will be given exclusive use of library spaces to ensure we maximise fair access to all.
To find out more about the Library and Learning Resources team, including key contacts and how to get in touch with them, please visit their CONNECT intranet page.
Managed by Olivia Morton, the Communications teams are responsible for internal communications across the Group, including the staff intranet, weekly all staff emails and the staff magazine. They also lead on sharing news stories with the media, organising Group events such as the opening of buildings, and keeping an eye on what people are saying about us online so that we can monitor our reputation.
Please get in touch if you have any good new stories to share, would like to develop your team’s section on the staff intranet or add information to our internal email/ magazine. You can get in contact with us via email at communications@bedford. ac.uk.
Managed by Jamie Hinckley, the Customer Feedback team lead on gathering and sharing regular feedback from students, parents and employers to measure their satisfaction, working alongside our colleges and Quality department to enhance the student / customer experience. The team also manage the Have Your Say (complaints and suggestions) process, ensuring that feedback is acted upon so that we can continually improve. And finally, the team provides labour market information and other data to help understand our students and customers, and identify skills gaps in our community, to help shape our curriculum offer and approach.
If you are thinking about running a new course but are not sure whether there is demand or would like help with getting feedback from students or customers, please get in touch.
Headed up by Sarah Elam, the Marketing team is responsible for attracting applicants and prospective students to our colleges. As well as managing all of the Group’s websites, including course information, they lead on open days, welcome days and other recruitment events. Each year, the team follow a detailed marketing plan for each college to attract people to both apply for a course and convert to enrolment, with lots of ‘keep warm’ activities in place. They are also responsible for engaging with schools, with over 90 school events and career fairs attended this year.
If you are launching a new course, need some help with attracting students or would like to develop your area’s website or course information pages, please get in touch with your marketing lead. You can find out who your lead is by visiting our staff intranet page.
Professional Development support the organisation and its staff to meet their goals by providing development opportunities. The Group has a generous professional development offer, meaning that every member of staff is entitled to some development - regardless of role, contract type or length of service, there is something for you!
You can contact Professional Development to:
• Apply for courses for yourself (Individual Application Form) or for your Team (Group Application Form)
• Discuss an emerging need and how we can use development to support that need (at individual, department, directorate, site or college-wide level)
• Plan your development or learn more about how the College can support you to meet your goals.
Did you know… every member of staff is entitled to one free internal course per year? As long as your line manager approves, there are spaces and the course is running, you can join for free! This may be subject to a Two-Year Commitment.
Visit their Connect area to learn more: HERE
The Quality team works alongside and supports all staff across the Group to deliver high quality work. They provide a constructively critical and friendly approach through continuous quality improvement programmes that enable staff and departments to achieve the Group’s aims and values.
Key focuses are on student experience; teaching, learning and assessment; student outcomes and other KPIs; self-assessing; upskilling staff; managing continuous professional development across the Group and the sharing of best practice. They have staff based across multiple sites.
You can find them in the following locations;
• Bedford College’s Tower Block - Room TB602,
• Central Bedfordshire College - Room D202
• Tresham College’s Kettering CampusRoom KWA229.
To find out more about the Quality team, including key contacts and how to get in touch with them, please visit their CONNECT intranet page.
The Student Services teams offer support services, such as impartial careers information, alongside advice and guidance in the range of opportunities open to students in education, training and employment. They support with researching HE courses, and throughout the UCAS application process, as well as preparing students for job applications and writing effective CV’s.
The Student Services team also offer financial support information and guidance, such as bursaries, budgeting and university funding, as well as helping with proof of enrolments, and signposting services such as wellbeing support and safeguarding issues.
Our Welfare team is the first point of contact for safeguarding and welfare concerns.
Responsible for the wellbeing and safeguarding of students across all CBC sites to provide support, advice and information around any welfare needs. They also manage safeguarding concerns from students, staff or external professionals. The team work closely with various agencies such as children & adults social care, police, CAMHS/health professionals, schools and community partners. Key roles within the team include:
• Welfare advisors who manage the day to day safeguarding demands, proactively identifying risks and taking actions to minimise potential risk to business or student related matters.
• A funding advisor who manages funding applications, assessing them throughout the academic year. They work alongside
the safeguarding and welfare lead to support students at discretion where appropriate.
• A Mental Health Support Worker who works individually with students and will support vocational group sessions to raise awareness.
The Student Experience Team believe college life should be a good balance of work and fun and here are all the ways that our students can get involved, make a change and develop employability and personal skills:
• LIVE Talks
• Themed months
• Awareness days and fundraising activities.
The Students’ Union works in partnership with the College, driving for outstanding teaching and learning, services and facilities. The Students Union have elections every year for a new President, Vice President and Officer posts.
The Students Union also supports the Exec Question Time event, and hosts the yearly Student Voice Conference.
To find out more about the Student Services team, including key contacts and how to get in touch with them, please visit their CONNECT intranet page.
CEO Ian Pryce CBE is due to retire officially on January 2nd 2024 after 25 years as CEO of the Group. His successor will be Yiannis Koursis OBE, the current Principal and Chief Executive of Barnsley College.
Yiannis has been helping transform the lives of students for more than 17 years, during which time he has held senior further education roles in colleges across the UK. He has also spent close to a decade working with voluntary and charitable services. He was awarded an OBE in 2022, and a fellowship by the Royal Society of Arts in 2020 for his outstanding achievements in social progress and development, championing the power of FE to transform lives.
More recently, Yiannis worked with the Gatsby Foundation to help enhance UK education and was invited to consult on the Government’s white paper for FE reform. In January 2022 he was appointed to the Further Education Principals Reference Group to support the FE Commissioner in improving performance in FE colleges.
He is a dedicated national advocate for the sector and works tirelessly to reinforce it as a force for opportunity and growth. He also serves as part of the CBI Yorkshire and Humber Regional Council alongside his work as Barnsley 2030 Board Vice Chair, leading the town’s vision and ambitions for the decade.
In April, two members of our Executive team, CEO Ian Pryce CBE and Deputy CEO Pat Jones, were appointed National Leaders of Further Education. Alongside them, Group Director of Governance Rachel Nicol was appointed a National Leader of Governance by the Further Education Commission.
We are the only college in the UK with three staff appointments at this national level.
Upon receiving this national recognition, Ian, Pat and Rachel had the following to say:
Ian: “This reinforces our Group as being a national leader in our sector. I am proud to see Pat and Rachel take up these important positions of influence within the world of Further Education”.
Pat: “This is great personal honour and recognition of what the Group has done to create a powerful voice for FE and the people we serve.”
Rachel: “I am looking forward to working with other professionals and boards across FE to develop appropriate governance for the delivery of their own college strategies. Ongoing support and respect for governance from the senior leadership team and volunteer board members at TBCG has been a key enabler for me in taking on the NLG role.”
In May, Shuttleworth College hosted the East of England Agricultural Society’s Annual Lecture. In attendance as a guest speaker was former Shuttleworth College student Mark Spencer, the now Minister of State for Food, Farming and Fisheries.
Before speaking at the Lecture, he met with students and farmers from across the region and took the time to revisit his old accommodation at the campus.
Mark also spoke with Dr Catherine Lloyd, Vice Principal at Shuttleworth College and learned about the £2 Million investment in Kingshill Farm.
This investment will support curriculum change to deliver T Levels in Agriculture, Animal Care and Environmental. With partial funding from Government T Level grants the money will provide high-quality teaching accommodation and fit-forpurpose facilities.
This investment will enable the college to effectively utilise new and emerging technologies as well as provide workshop and classroom space for the effective delivery of T Level qualifications.
At the end of May, Pat Jones, Deputy CEO for the Group was joined by representatives from Bedford Borough Council, Bedford Town Deal Board and ASHE (contractors) to celebrate the unveiling of the new look Tower Block.
Bedford College’s 1959 Tower Block is being transformed into a £12.5m state-ofthe-art, energy-efficient Health, Science and Digital Skills Centre as one of seven major Bedford Town Deal projects, with the development benefiting from a £3m boost from the government-funded scheme.
A number of spaces within the Health, Science and Digital Skills Centre are being upgraded as part of the refurbishment, including labs and IT suites. The improvements will open up the St Mary’s Gardens area and allow easy access to Riverside Bedford and the rest of Bedford town centre and allow us to welcome an additional 250 full-time education students a year.
A video showing the Tower Block from various angles now that the scaffolding has started to be removed has now been released. You can view this on our website here.
On 17 June, The Corby Sixth Form hosted a tour day for prospective students. In total, over 50 guests attended, along with their families.
Whilst there, they had the opportunity to speak with tutors about the subjects that will be available. They also had the chance to take part in a Q&A session with the Head of The Corby Sixth Form, Helen Smith.
This tour day was a great chance to see how construction at TCSF is progressing before it opens its doors to students this September.
We are very happy to be able to share more detailed information about this year’s Staff Conference. All staff are invited and we are looking forward to seeing everyone there to meet with colleagues from across the Group.
All attendees have been placed into different groups, each with their own timetable.
Please use the information in this section to learn more about each groups timetable, as well as more about our keynote speakers.
The conference this year has 4 key themes:
• Big Picture (our identity as a Group)
• AI (Artificial Intelligence)
• Behaviour
• Sustainability
We are also really pleased that we will be hosting this years’ Staff Awards 2023 at the staff conference. All nominees have now been shortlisted and the winners will receive their award on Friday 30 June during the last session of the day.
Our Artificial Intelligence speaker, Carla Aerts, is an interdisciplinary international thought leader and practitioner in learning with technologies. She was Director of Futures at University College London—Institute of Education, Global Digital Director Education at Cambridge University Press and ran an EdTech Think Tank, the Tmrw Institute. She sits on the board of R:Ed Africa, is a member of the DEFI Oversight Committee at Cambridge university, and advisory board of ErasmusX at Erasmus University Rotterdam, is a member of World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) Expert Network for AI, and workgroup on AI and Childhood.
Carla founded Refracted!, an online interdisciplinary community on learning and translational research and mentors EdTech start-ups. She is Director of Digital Change at Hodder Education.
Our Sustainability speaker Chris Hines is the founder of A Grain of Sand, former sustainability director of the Eden Project and the founder of Surfers Against Sewage. He was also special advisor to the Minister for the Environment.
A former terrorist, hostage and crisis negotiator; Powering Your Potential are experts in de-escalation strategies. They provide theory and practical solutions that are applicable to everyone. Andy and Steve from Powering Your Potential will be our Behaviour speakers.
We have lots of different wellbeing activities happening this year. Details such as timings, locations and booking links can be found on the dedicated Staff Conference intranet page.
We will have the following wellbeing activities available:
• Walking Groups
• Tai Chi
• Forest bathing
• Sound Baths
• Yoga
• Prayer and Reflection (Female)
• Prayer and Reflection (Male)
• Sleep, breathe and ground
• You are Important
• Live music
• Exhibition Space
• Kick Boxing
Our key note speaker, Shaun Wallace, star of ITV’s hit show The Chase, will be relaying his lived experience as a black man growing up and living in Britain. He has experienced various forms of discrimination and exclusion and has overcome the negativity to achieve prominence in his professional field and also to become a muchloved television star. His response to defeating prejudice is to defeat it with intelligence.
To find out more about the Exhibition Space, please visit the Staff Conference intranet page. To book onto a Wellbeing activity, please click the relevant Eventbrite link on the intranet page and sign up.
Transport for the staff conference will be available. There will be coaches leaving from Tresham College, Kettering campus and Central Bedfordshire College, Kingsway (Dunstable) campus to the University of Bedfordshire, Bedford campus. To use the coaches, you must have booked a space previously using the Staff Conference registration form.
Minibuses and coaches have been arranged to leave campuses at 8.30am prompt. For those travelling by coach please be assured that the welcome and registration will stay open until you arrive as we are aware that there is potential for delays for rush hour traffic to the centre of Bedford.
For further information on transport, please visit the dedicated Staff Conference intranet page
To ensure that all staff are able to attend each session, the staff conference will have three different timetables. Timetables 1 and 3 consist of three groups of staff, while Timetables 2 consists of only one group. You can find timetabling and grouping information for each Strand on the following pages.
Please note that if you are in Strand 3, Group 3, if you have mobility issues then please attend the Strand 1 (Group 2/3) behaviour session happening at the same time in room P0.32/33, as the other classroom is only accessible via the stairs.
The conference is a catered event and lunch will be provided. There is a scheduled lunch break for each group - please stick to your allocated lunch slot to allow the food trucks to manage the wait times.
There will be three food trucks available, as well as sandwich bags.
The food trucks in attendance will be:
• Fink - Shawarma and Falafel Mezze boxes
• Salty Dogg - Gourmet hot dogs
• Pimp My Fish - Gourmet fish and chips
• Ranv’s Rasoi - Punjabi street food.
To read their full menus, please visit the dedicated Staff Conference intranet page.
June is Pride Month. It is a time to commemorate our hard-fought victories; recognising that our communities have achieved equity in lots of aspects of life. It is also a time to celebrate our colourful and vibrant people but also to reflect on the prejudices we continue to face in everyday life. I have been to more Pride events than I care to mention. The party and procession aspects which we all recognise as being key to a pride event are just small parts of what makes it special. Most Prides will also hold a vigil on one of the nights preceding the main event. This gives the community an opportunity to contemplate the importance of these events – every Pride is a protest, and attending is an act of bravery.
It is a challenging time to be LGBTQ+ in the UK. Internationally we used to be at the very top of the LGBTQ+ rights league table (ILGA). This ranks countries based upon the legal situation and policies for LGBTQ+ people.
The UK is now 17th which is quite a fall from grace in ten years. It is unusual for countries to regress in terms of human rights; but here we are. This seems to be based on the sharp rise in homophobic and transphobic hate crimes nationally. The UN has commented that the EHRC (Equality and Human Rights Commission) has given the government a legal right to discriminate against trans people in relation to proposed changes to the definition of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act. The UK government has also blocked Scotland’s proposal to simplify the gender recognition process. Conversion therapy remains perfectly legal in the UK despite years of promises to ban it.
True LGBTQ+ allyship and advocacy suggests that it is okay to party at pride and rainbow wash our organisations if we truly understand the disadvantages that go along with being LGBTQ+, and to fight alongside these communities to bring about real equity.
Date Festival/Awareness Day
All Month Disability Pride Month
14 July International Non-Binary People’s Day
19 July Islam: Muharram/Islamic New Year
24 July International Self Care Day
24 July Samaritans Awareness Day
27 July Islam: Ashura
27 July Judaism: Tisha B’va
15 - 17 September Judaism: Rosh Hashanah
21 September International Day of Peace
23 September Bi-visibility Day
25 September Judaism: Yom Kippur
27 September Islam: Mawlid an Nabi/ The Prophet’s Birthday
29 September - 6 October Judaism: Sukkot
Date Festival/Awareness Day
All Month Black History Month
All Month STOPTOBER
All Month Breast Cancer Awareness Month
All Month Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Awareness Month
2 - 8 October World Dyslexia Awareness Week
5 October Islam: Baptism of the Prophet (Umm al-Qura)
6 - 8 October Judaism: Shmini Atzeret/ Simchat Torah
10 October World Mental Health Day
4 August Cycle to Work Day September
Date Festival/Awareness Day
All Month Prostate Cancer Awareness Month
5 September International Day of Charity
7 September Hinduism: Krishna Janmashtami
11 - 17 September Sexual Health Week
Sikhism: Bandi Chhov
31 October Christianity: All Hallows’ Eve/All Saints’ Eve
Hayley Brackenbury Catering Assistant
Cheryl Branford-Peers Lecturer - Fashion & Textiles
Kyle Broad Lecturer - Animation and Games Design
Matthew Busby Associate - Customer Contact Advisor
Sandra Byus Catering Assistant
Emma Constable Teaching Assistant
Jill Darby Associate - Lecturer – ESOL
Katharine Dawson Learning Support Assistant (Maternity Cover)
Dion Dore Teaching Assistant
Ali Elezi Lecturer – Electrical
Nana Gyambibi Lecturer - Health, Social and Childrens Care
Katherine Hannant Associate - Support Assistant
Suzanne Hare Lecturer – Sport
Charlotte Hosie Personal Achievement Tutor
Emily Janes
Trainee Lecturer – Agriculture
Jessica Lambert Executive Assistant
Chris Lawless Catering Assistant
Jessica Le-Young Associate - Lifeguard
Poppy Lovatt Associate - Examinations & Achievement Assistant
John MacLellan Training Coordinator
Jordan Marquis Lecturer - English
Jason Martin Employer Engagement Officer
Reece Maynard Marketing Assistant
Salinda Mehmi Library and Learning Resources Assistant
Hayley Norman Associate - Equine Groom
Lesley Paris Centre Administrator
Daria Potrykus Customer Contact Advisor
Lalita Rathod Teacher – Geography
Richard Rochester Lecturer – English
Liam Sale Teaching Assistant
Fungisayi Sasa Associate - Invigilator
Leonardo Sharp-Nelaj Associate - Lifeguard
Angela Shipp Customer Contact Advisor
Anil Sihota
Work Placement Coordinator
Katrina Smith
Apprenticeship Administration Coordinator
Lorraine Smith
Work Placement Coordinator
Georgina Staines
Examinations and Achievements Administrator
Monica Stevenson Strand Lead - Timetables and Registers
Emily Surman
Associate - Examinations Assistant
Lauren Thompson Executive Assistant
Paul Timmins
Associate - Lecturer - Engineering
Kirsty Todd
Team Leader - Libraries & Learning Resources
Jake Waddoups Course Manager - Animal Sciences
Jemma Watson
Practical Instructor
Graham Wells Engineering Technician
Amy Williams
Work Placement Coordinator
George Worthington
Associate – Lifeguard
We are hiring! Please share suitable roles with friends or family. For more information regarding any vacancies, please do not hesitate to contact the Recruitment team by email: recruitment@bedford.ac.uk.
The full list of vacancies can be found here on our website.
