College Societies

Chapel Choir

The Choir returned in September with a somewhat unusual start to the year, with all auditions taking place in the relative comfort of our bedrooms. However, through the trials of Zoom and online auditions, we managed to put together a choir hopeful for Services to begin again in 2020! Tragedy struck soon into term when we discovered that our weekly evensongs could only go ahead following government guidance around interacting in households. Thankfully, we had some brilliant, keen freshers who were very fortunately living in the same household bubble in College.

Throughout Michaelmas we were challenged with unusual repertoire by composers such as Dufay, Monteverdi and Lassus, and Hatfield Chapel was transformed back to the days of plainchant and monastic singing. This didn’t last for long though, as our colleague and friend, Will Sims, composed a set of Lockdown Responses written for “Household Choir”. We christened the newly named “Chapel Green” with an outdoor Remembrance Service of wreath laying and hymns which was remarkably well attended despite the limitations of social distancing. The highlight of these unusual Evensong arrangements culminated in our Celebration of Nine Lessons and Carols, led by the Canon Michael Everitt, where we performed Benjamin Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols rearranged for Sopranos, Tenor and Organ. Epiphany Term started much as Michaelmas ended, with our Household Choir increased to two whole households! With some very careful tweaking of repertoire, we managed to perform an (almost) normal service of Evensong each week. The Choir also put out recordings to lift the spirits of our growing Facebook congregation, with Ewens/Jones arrangement of Blooming Heather for Burns’ Night Supper, Ash Wednesday, a Tenebrae Service for Passiontide, extracts from Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs for Easter Sunday, as well as other anthems.

By Easter Term we were able to have a socially distanced choir, and we definitely made the most of it with large anthems such as Byrd Sing Joyfully, Hadley My Beloved Spake, and Harris Faire is the Heaven. It was great to finally see all the members we had auditioned several months earlier and give a proper send off to our graduating members. Though it was a tough year, we navigated the challenges of Chaplains, Covid, Livestreams, and plainchant with enthusiasm every week. We are very grateful to the visiting Chaplains for all the support they offered Hatfield Chapel Choir this year, and Professor Ann MacLarnon and Janet Raine for ensuring that Services took place. Finally, I would like to thank and congratulate Miles MacLachlan, Alice Latham, Beth Yates, and Adam Whitmore for their tremendous efforts throughout the year, their unwavering enthusiasm, and the remarkable achievement of delivering a service each and every week of this year.

Jess Norton Raybould

Director of Music

Hatfield College Charity Committee

Charity Committee fundraising update in competition against Castle

Despite being limited by coronavirus, Hatfield Charity Committee (HCC) has operated to the best of its ability, trying to provide socially distanced opportunities for volunteering and fundraising throughout College. Enabled by new separate fundraising and volunteering subsections, the scope of HCC has widened and hopefully in the subsequent years we will see wider College participation.

Whilst we have been unable to assume some of our usual projects such as Awkward Formal and Valentine’s chocolate hearts, we have had the opportunity to work on more projects with DUSVO (Durham University Student Volunteering and Outreach) and University College. In terms of fundraising, our distancedbased competition with University College managed to raise over £1000 for DASH and Teenage Cancer Trust, with students walking close to 4000km combined. We are also working on another fundraising project for Hatfield-Castle Day. We opened our Charity Toastie Bar in Michaelmas Term and conducted a Red Nose Day cupcake collection in Epiphany.

On the volunteering side of things, our fantastic Vice-Chair of volunteering, Alex Gallucci, has been working closely with DUSVO on projects such as the Green Move out Programme, Christmas Card Projects, School Mentoring and the Once a Month Project. Our aim is to get volunteering and fundraising ingrained in College life and hopefully now that Hatfield Charity Committee has been established for two years, there is a better foundation for the next Executive Committee.

Ruby Debell

Chair

Hatfield College presents Antigone by Sophocles online March 2021, directed by Visiting Drama Fellow, Jake Murray. (Cast above)

Hatfield Drama Club

Theatre and performing arts have been heavily affected by the pandemic over the last year. For many students at Hatfield, drama is a large part of Durham student life; rehearsals every evening and performing in spaces around Durham regularly.

Inevitably, this was difficult this year because of Covid restrictions. Nevertheless, organised by the Master, Professor Ann MacLarnon, a group of Hatfield students, led by the award-winning Theatre Director, Jake Murray, began meeting virtually every week in Michaelmas Term. At first, Jake

...online rehearsals definitely had its perks for me: sitting in slippers and not having to learn lines!

began taking us through audition and monologue techniques until we stumbled upon the Greek tragedy Antigone in one of the rehearsals. Jake calls it “the greatest political drama ever written … a roller coaster of emotion”, and upon our initial reading of it, we agreed at the great power of language this play held. It seemed uncannily apt for the present moment, when the conflict between the State and the Individual remains in turmoil around the world.

At the beginning of Epiphany Term, we spread the word about Antigone, gaining more talented actors to join our group. With a range of experience and a mixture of freshers, second, third year and masters’ students, we began rehearsals for Antigone via Zoom. Rehearsing online is a concept that was new to us all, and although delayed responses and bad connections can be disruptive, online rehearsals definitely had its perks for me: sitting in slippers and not having to learn lines! With a pre-recording on Zoom the week before, we released the play online on 20 March 2021 making one of the first Durham plays not only accessible to a Durham student

Director of Antigone, Visiting Drama Fellow, Jake Murray

audience, but to anyone in the world. It was a unique experience considering I had not met many of the cast face-to-face (hopefully at some point we will!) but it allowed us to really focus on Sophocles’ thought-provoking language, and our own characterisation. I feel very grateful to work with a professional Director, for Jake’s insight, experience and expertise. I hope Hatfield actors continue making Hatfield proud and proving that a pandemic cannot stop the world of creative art!

Alana Mann

Actor

Feminist Society

Despite the circumstances, Hatfield Feminists have had a great year this year. We have made the best of the situation and have found that our membership levels have still managed to increase this year which we are thrilled about!

Michaelmas Term was unfortunately fairly uneventful as we navigated the changing restrictions and were sceptical about online discussion groups. We did however get involved in the ‘Zoom social’ craze and managed to get creative with our first Zoom social of the year featuring a scavenger hunt. Epiphany Term was packed throughout with events and discussion groups. Before the start of Epiphany Term, our new structure was approved, and the new Assistant Senior Feminist Reps were elected each with a specific role, and each Assistant Senior Rep was given a junior to work with. This meant that over the three categories: campaigns, outreach and socials we saw a flurry of activity led and supported by the Senior Feminist Rep. This year, we organised some great campaigns including a body positivity campaign featuring a podcast with Hatfield Welfare and an Instagram giveaway. We held a talk by DASH (a local charity tackling homelessness, particularly through their vulnerable women’s project) followed by a walking/running challenge through which all the Exec then raised over £900. We also made a video for International Women’s Day about why Hatfielders are feminists.

We held weekly discussion groups on a range of topics from ‘is marriage inherently

Elise Jeffery at the FemSoc table at Freshers’ Fair 2020

anti-feminist?’ to ‘the power of birth control’ which were very well attended despite having to take place on Zoom. As well as this we had many online socials, including a joint social with the other communities in Hatfield, and a Netflix party movie night. We also began to plan for a very exciting panel event for Easter Term. We are so excited for our events to hopefully begin in person again starting from summer term.

Our social media presence also grew, and we featured many Instagram take-overs as well as Female Creator Fridays every week. And our Facebook group chat now has 73 members which is absolutely fantastic. This year, we have also been looking at the title ‘Senior Man’ and whether it is

Feminist Society Social poster and Debate & Discussion poster from Instagram

time for a change. Elise, Senior Feminist Rep, proposed a referendum, which unfortunately did not make it through the JCR vote, but we are keen to start a bigger conversation about the power of gendered language going forward. Excitingly the first female Senior Man, Yolande Wright, will be attending our panel event in Easter Term, which we believe will start a great conversation about the history of women in Hatfield. thank you to Elise our Senior Feminist Rep (who is now taking up a position on the JCR Executive Committee as Communities Officer) for her great leadership and support! And we would like to wish a fond goodbye to Beth and Maddie (the founders of our community) who will be leaving at the end of the year who will be greatly missed.

All in all, we have had a great year and can’t wait to carry on growing as a community. We would like to say a big Laura Smith

Assistant Senior Feminist Rep

Kinky Jeff and the Swingers back together again for socially distanced rehearsals in the Palace Green marquee!

Kinky Jeff and The Swingers

This year has been a year like no other for Kinky Jeff.

With gigs, tours and rehearsals cancelled, the new Exec comprising Leah Collins (President), Alex Down (Musical Director), Ollie Stockley (Producer), Lydia Rae Stephenson (Treasurer), Alex AinleyCarruthers (Social Secretary) and Archie Holder (Social Secretary) had to band together and try something new. We successfully held our virtual auditions in October, welcoming three freshers to the band. Despite the Covid restrictions, we managed to pull together an online version of our annual ‘Kinkiest Fresher’ social, which was an entertaining way to throw the new members into the KJ family. Over the summer, we created a series of well received ‘Lockdown Recordings’ which included I Will Survive, and The Girl from Ipanema. Following this great reception, we created the KJ Christmas CD, and raised £435.31. This money has been put towards a number of purchases, including a new bass amp and microphone for the band. The Hatfield Trust was also fantastic this year, funding a new cocktail drum kit which our drummer has enjoyed using recently. Rehearsals have been the hardest part of the year, as after a month of successful practise in November, Covid sadly shut down our time together. Our incredible Musical Director, Alex, put on his

thinking cap, and organised some virtual rehearsals after the Christmas break, which were brilliant for keeping the Kinky Jeff vibe ticking along. Thankfully, third term is looking good for us as we have successfully booked a handful of gigs, and we’re back to weekly in person rehearsals. After the confusing months that 2020 and 2021 brought us, it’s not clear what next academic year will bring, but we know that, sadly, we’ll be losing a few members to new adventures. Sam Goring, one of our tenor saxophonists, has played with the band for the last four years, and as such he’ll be missed greatly. Ollie Stockley, an alto saxophonist and this year’s Producer, is going to pursue a programme in Musical Theatre at the Royal Academy of Music, and he takes our well wishes with him. We may also lose Lydia Rae Stephenson, our vocalist, tenor saxophonist and this year’s Treasurer, and Yusuf Cimcoz, our drummer. They’ll both be successful in whatever their future endeavours will be; they have contributed so heavily to the Kinky Jeff family that their presence will be hugely missed. No matter what happens next year, Kinky Jeff and the Swingers won’t give up, we’ll keep rehearsing, gigging, and touring, and making Hatfield proud every step of the journey.

Leah Collins

President

The new drum kit, funded by the Hatfield Trust, being put to good use by KJ drummer, Yusuf Cimcoz

Lumley Ball

When I was appointed as Lumley Ball Chair in April 2020, I never expected to be in the position our team is in today.

Planning for the Ball started promptly, in the hope that Covid-19 would not prevent the magical Lumley Ball from happening in December 2020. Alongside the Events Officer, Chloë Hayes, I appointed our talented seniors. The team then collectively decided on a theme and started getting creative with decoration and entertainment ideas, as well as booking the beautiful Lumley Castle as our venue. Unfortunately, by September, it became clear that coronavirus would not have sufficiently eased for this event to take place, but we didn’t let this knock us back! Chloë and I made the decision to combine forces and create the new Hatfield’s Summer Solstice Ball, due to take place on 21 June 2021, combining Lumley Ball and Michaelmas Ball into one.

I must thank Elouise Brookes, Treasurer, and Caitlin Sturrock, Creative Officer, for all of their hard work towards the Lumley Ball that sadly didn’t happen. The rest of our team decided to stay on to help plan the Summer Ball and are still hard at work preparing for what will hopefully be a brilliant event!

By Christmastime, we made the decision to also combine with Lion in Winter Ball, adding Lucy Pallent and her team onto the Summer Ball Team. Planning an event with three Co-Chairs has been a learning curve, but has also given the team an enjoyable opportunity to explore a new way of event organisation. The theme of

Hatfield’s 2020 Summer Solstice Ball logo designed by Tanisha Jha

the Ball is ‘Wonderland’, based on Alice in Wonderland. This theme has let our creative team flourish. The resilience of the team in these challenging times amazes me, and I am so grateful that we have had the opportunity to continue working on some form of event to bring Hatfield to life in the summer term. We can’t wait for you to see what we have planned and come together as a community once again in June!

Libby Crombie

Chair

Music Society

The 2020/21 academic year has been a challenging one for music-making, but the Hatfield Music Society has tried to remain active through all the restrictions.

Thanks go to Lily McNeill (Concert Manager), Amila Wijesinghe (Ensemble Coordinator) and Chessy Weiner (Treasurer). The first term’s Freshers’ Concert was held in November in the College Chapel with some impressive performances from our new Hatfielders. Our Christmas Concert was held online due to restrictions, but we were treated to excellent performances of Schubert, Mozart and more. Whilst facilities have been more difficult to access, musicians across College have kept on practising and we are looking forward to performing together in the final term. A Lunchtime Recital series is planned for June partnered with the Chapel Choir, and we are looking forward to more gigs in the bar and sunshine after exams.

Despite the challenges this year, there is clearly a diverse range of musical talent in Hatfield and we look forward to celebrating it more next year.

Miles MacLachlan

President

Student International Team

Working as Senior International Representatives alongside the International Team has been a rewarding and enriching experience this year. Since the beginning of term, we have strived to provide an inclusive, diverse and welcoming environment for all international students at Hatfield.

Before Michaelmas Term, we worked collaboratively with Minnie Parker, James Reid (Senior Induction Week Reps) and College Officers to discuss plans for International Freshers’ Week. We wrote an International Handbook for incoming international students with new sections on advice from other international students, details on what to bring to College, important aspects of life in the UK, anti-racism resources and statements from other communities in Hatfield. The success of this handbook would not have been possible without the support from James and Minnie. Feedback from the international students is that the handbook is comprehensive and contains a wide

We organised two weeks of virtual events for international students who had to quarantine in College, ranging from discussion sessions, question and answer sessions to movie nights and quizzes.

variety of resources and information which is proving useful during their time at Durham University. We organised two weeks of virtual events for international students who had to quarantine in College, ranging from discussion sessions, question and answer sessions to movie nights and quizzes. In addition to these virtual events, we organised a schedule of events during International Freshers’ Week, with activities such as walks around Durham, cookie decorating and International Tea and Toast. Pre-arrival, we also ran several virtual information sessions to answer any questions from the incoming freshers. We delivered presentations on antiracism resources and micro-aggressions, with scenario-based training for all the Hatfield Freps this year. During the year, we also worked collaboratively with other communities on anti-racism resources. Our Instagram takeover during the summer featured international students from different corners of the world, which had a great engagement on the page. We worked collaboratively to host several inter-communities’ events throughout the year which were great, in addition to international welcome events and several talks about the university experience. Moreover, we held a panel discussion amongst all International Freps for incoming freshers which was very successful and a great forum to discuss experiences and advice from international students.

In addition to working collaboratively with communities in College, we also worked closely with Hatfield Welfare on the Imposter Syndrome campaign. Overall, this year we organised several inter-communities’ events and campaigns, shared anti-racism resources, supported international students from the summer to Freshers’ Week and throughout the year using Q/A and campaigns on Instagram. We are excited to see what the next Senior International Reps do and the work the International Team will continue to do to support international students.

Kim Ninh and Sanya Sharma

Senior International Reps

Circle of Pride

This year was particularly challenging for Circle of Pride and Hatfield’s LGBTQ+ community. Our community is a place where people get to celebrate their differences and explore the vibrant queer culture, which historically and usually happens through in-person discussions, contacts and festivities in designated LGBTQ+ spaces.

However, we still managed to have an eventful year filled with fantastic online interactions and informative campaigns on the wonderful diversity within the LGBTQ+ community. Starting with an extravagant Pride social in June to make up for the dearly missed and iconic parades in cities around the world, we then prepared to welcome Hatfield’s 2020 freshers by increasing our social media presence and editing, writing and sharing helpful information. As Michaelmas Term settled in we held socials for new members to engage and returning ones to reconnect with one another.

In light of the events of the previous summer with regard to racial injustice and the Black Lives Matters movement, we felt that it was necessary to celebrate black members of the LGBTQ+ community as they have always been at the forefront of the fight for Gay Liberation, against AIDS, and have also produced many central parts of today’s queer culture. Each week of October we showcased different important, yet lesser known, black LGBTQ+ figures to highlight the vast diversity of personalities involved, but also projects and work undertaken. We also held watch parties, provided further information resources and encouraged donations to charities such as the African Rainbow Family and the Intersex Justice Project. We concluded a busy first term by participating in events with the Durham LGBTQ+ Association and other Colleges’ LGBTQ+ communities, and had our very own holiday special social.

Epiphany Term marked the real beginning of what is hopefully to become central to our College’s life: intersectionality. While still maintaining our own projects, such as celebrating LGBT history month with a thorough campaign on AIDS, we also worked with Hatfield Feminists and conducted a discussion session on the dynamics and limitations of reclaiming homophobic and misogynistic slurs. The success of this event and the efforts of the JCR Exec have led to increasing collaboration between Hatfield’s different communities. Over the past month we have been engaging and learning from each other, while at the same time planning future events to ensure that when life does go back to normal, each community will rise to the challenge.

We are looking forward to Easter Term and we are eager to bring out the energy and positivity that many of us have been missing over the past year. Throughout the year, despite only having a few freshers join us and our previous members separated across the globe, we still managed to make our presence heard and felt. This was something we always did with great pride.

Loïc Derrien and Emerson Muhmoud

Senior LGBTQ Reps

People of Colour Community

The Hatfield POC Community has always played a vital and pivotal role in the Hatfield Community. Nevertheless, the role of POC Rep is a fairly new position which was recently filled in 2020. Despite the struggles of Covid-19 making this year a year like no other, the POC Community has created a strong online presence through social media and events.

Through this academic year we have created freshers’ anti-racism training in collaboration with the Hatfield Internationals Community, targeting micro-aggressions in College and ways to educate ourselves and deal with them. This was shown and discussed with the freshers in September 2020. Besides this, in November 2020, we collaborated with Durham People Of Colour Association and other Colleges on their 17 Letters, 4 Words; A Racism Free Durham Campaign working to make a safer place for minorities in Durham University. Furthermore, on 17 March 2021, we held an online Communities Social with Hatfield Feminists, Hatfield Internationals and Hatfield Circle of Pride through Zoom with members of all communities participating in a night of games and quizzes. The POC community also collaborated with the Durham People of Colour Association and Mixed Students’ Society on 26 March 2021, in an online tribute and panel discussion about the recent anti-Asian racism crimes. Here Aida Rosnan discussed the opinions and words from the POC community and ways to help with other POC students in Durham University. This year the POC community has succeeded in creating a stronger online presence from the ground up, as well as collaborating with other societies and communities in making a more supportive and educative environment. In June 2020, we worked on raising awareness and posting resources regarding the Black Lives Matter movement and ways in which we could all collectively support the Black community. Furthermore, in February 2021, we successfully collaborated with Hatfield Welfare in recording a podcast about Imposter Syndrome in the POC community. We worked on posts, tips and signposting guides on reasons why Imposter Syndrome could occur in POC communities as well as easy to get support. In addition to this, we worked with Hatfield Internationals on creating a statement about the current rise in anti-Asian hate crimes including further ways to educate oneself, and to help out as well as receive help. The POC community is involved on the newly established Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Committee. Here we have successfully collaborated with Hatfield Welfare to create a signposting guide for communities. Through the EDI Committee we also hope to work on creating compulsory anti-racism training for upcoming freshers and clearer actions against micro-aggression and racism in College.

In conclusion, the POC community has worked to create a stable foundation that future reps can build on, and raise awareness throughout College of the issues facing the community. We hope to see the community flourish in future years.

Aida Rosnan (Acting Senior POC Rep) Andrew Midenda (POC Rep)

SHAPED

This year SHAPED moved to become part of the JCR, and functioned entirely online, allowing global participation. The Senior Exec joined from across the world, with Emily Chen as Academic Rep, Velina Petkova as Development Rep, Florence Singer as Lions & Careers Rep, Alison Greenfield as Publicity Rep, and Asif Mashadi as Chair.

Operating SHAPED remotely did create some challenges, but largely facilitated more attendance from alumni. The Civil Service Fast Stream Talk as part of the Hatfield Virtual Careers Conversations was our most well-attended events, as three civil servants joined us from across England and South Africa to shine more light on Hatfielders’ potential careers in the Civil Service. SHAPED also hosted a ‘Break Into Tech’ Talk with alumnus, Alok Kumar. Moving into Epiphany Term, SHAPED increased its attendance and engagement, especially with the series of CV Clinics by Dr Richard Bain and Alexander Taylor of the SCR, which proved exceptionally popular with undergraduates. New events included ‘Pursuing Postgraduate Study’, where alumni, Quinn Higgins and James Petley answered a range of questions from students about the complex process of managing postgraduate applications. SHAPED also expanded its digital side, moving the previous Squarespace website onto the College’s JCR site, with the help of the JCR Software Officer, Alex Paraskos. The process was partially enabled by the creation of new named junior roles, with Manon Sintes as Editor, and Alexander Cooke as Marketing Rep, transferring 24 blogs from SHAPED’s previous website to the new one. SHAPED was also joined by Rosie Beckwith-Smith as Content Contributor, Lucy Pallent as Treasurer, and Julius Balchin as Junior Academic Rep. Over the past year, SHAPED authored 13 new blogs on a range of topics, from understanding the STARR technique, to experiences as an international student at Hatfield, whilst updating SHAPED’s comprehensive Interview Bank. Special thanks go to Grace Norman, Hatfield Development Officer, for allowing SHAPED to engage with alumni events, and also to the JCR Executive team for promoting events and to Software Officer, Alex Paraskos, who was instrumental in helping SHAPED transfer the website.

Lorna Cosgrave

Programme Coordinator

Civil Service Fast Stream Virtual Careers Conversation in partnership with SHAPED & Flyer for the SHAPED Managing STEM exams workshop and for the SHAPED CV Clinics

Voices

Hatfield Voices joined the trend of Zoom socials and AGMs in Easter Term, electing our new Executive and reuniting from across the globe (from Canada to Germany!).

Connie Brown was elected as Secretary and Sally Deverell as Social Secretary. Rosa Marks and Paul Dirk continue in their roles of Musical Director and Accompanist respectively. Michaelmas and Epiphany Terms have been rather quiet terms for Voices due to Covid, and as a for fun singing group with no auditions, we felt that Zoom practices would not be suitable. We greatly look forward to what the next academic year will bring and hope that we will be able to be back singing together soon!

Emma Williams

President

Welfare

In a year like no other, Hatfield’s Welfare Team have not failed in dedicating their time to helping others. Launched straight into a national lockdown after the election of Jess Clark as our new Welfare Officer, the Team’s priority was to ensure that Hatfielders still felt part of our community despite being at home.

Hatfield At Home, a social media-based interactive campaign, was a massive hit during the Easter holidays. From a Great Hatfield Bake Off to self-care hampers posted home to Hatfielders, our Team took pride in bringing some sunshine to people during difficult times. Meanwhile, our drop-ins had to adapt to virtual support, which came with a host of challenges. We struggled to create a non-clinical environment that virtual calls can often feel. Our ‘how are you doing today?’ interactive posts on Instagram stories were a great way to help Hatfielders check-in with themselves and make drop-ins feel more friendly, informal and casual. After exams, our Livers Out Representatives hosted a successful liversout/abroad campaign. It was great to see old and new Hatfielders talking about their experiences and sharing tips for those about to live out/abroad for the first time. We also released a Livers’ Out Handbook. This resource informed those living in student housing how to navigate contracts, bills, deposits, and other daunting tasks associated with housing. Meanwhile unfortunately, College marriages also had to be online with certificates sent via email. Hopefully, next year students can get married officially in the College Chapel.

Another first this year has been the creation of a Student Signposting Handbook to make student support more accessible to Hatfielders, old and new. After dedicating her summer holiday to create the 70-page handbook, Jess distributed it to College Officers, freshers, JCR members and even beyond our gates to other Colleges. Hopefully, the handbook will become a legacy that will shape the accessibility of student support in the future.

Welfare Team welcome back team photo Advertising the new podcast episode featuring the Welfare and Communities teams

Freshers’ Week was a blur as usual, but Hatfield Welfare’s very own James Reid and Minnie Parker did an outstanding job running a seamless induction despite government restrictions. Welfare was an integral part of supporting both freshers and freps during the week. We ran daily drop-in hours, extremely popular Tea and Toast takeaways and a Welfare wind-down afternoon. A new initiative for the year was introducing supply cupboards in each household, ensuring that freshers were all stocked up on Welfare’s infamous supplies! Parenting night was hosted shortly after Freshers’ Week via Teams, and we hope to follow up the evening with an in-person event in the summer term.

Michaelmas Term was all about teamwork. We were thrilled to appoint 11 new Junior Welfare Representatives who have been fantastic throughout the year despite not having the opportunity to meet in person. This year’s new role as a Supply Representative, filled by Rosie Nicholls, successfully promoted Welfare supplies and coordinated supply drops for liversin. Next year we hope to increase the outreach of the role, introduce new supplies and have more campaigns surrounding supplies. During Michaelmas, we hosted our first ever inter-collegiate Take Time to Sign campaign, the 12 Days of Welfmas and another Hatfield At Home campaign, all being social media-based. The Livers’ Out Team ran an Eat Out to Help Out scheme for livers out craving College brunch. And we were thrilled to be able to run an online version of Tea and Toast, where students could study and meet other Hatfielders; it has been an enormous triumph thanks to our Tea and Toast President, Zach Nezianya.

We are also delighted to announce our first-ever collaboration with the Good Lad Initiative in light of Movember. As a College, we understand that we have some way to improve gender equality and men’s mental health and we felt that the Good Lad Initiative was the perfect charity to work with our male leaders within the

College. The interactive workshop was praised by those that attended, and we hope to work with them in the future, especially with our Sports and Societies. Despite the Welfare Team being at home for the Epiphany Term, our campaigns have never been better! Our Epiphany campaigns included Mental Health Awareness, Body Positivity, Work Smart and Imposter Syndrome. And this year, we took the initiative to work more closely with our wonderful Communities on these campaigns by collaborating on podcasts, signposting material and videos. Furthermore, Jess Clark (JCR Welfare Officer) and Rhiannon Melass (JCR Communities Officer) pioneered Welfare Liaisons, where a Nightline-trained Welfare Representative was voluntarily matched with a Senior Communities Representative. In doing so we hope to strengthen the accessibility of support for both communities and the Senior Communities’ Representatives who may face disclosures. Progression and improvement are something that Welfare are determined to achieve; therefore, Jess submitted a motion at the end of her term to create a Senior Men’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Representative. Having now passed an OGM vote, this Representative will host drop-ins, work with men’s mental health charities, help deliver engaging consent training and campaign for better mental health and wellbeing for all within the College. We are excited to see what the future holds for this role and the positive impacts it will assuredly have upon the Hatfield community. Undoubtedly, this year has been a challenge for students and student support. Yet, Hatfield Welfare saw Covid-19 as an opportunity to increase the accessibility of support for students and to help encourage more active conversations around mental health. And despite such an isolating year, we are incredibly proud of our individual and group achievements as a team. Our most extraordinary achievement has been helping to create such a welcoming community. Hatfield is in safe hands for the future, cared for by dedicated, passionate and warm individuals who have a desire to help their peers at the heart of everything they do. Therefore as your JCR Welfare Officer for the year 2020-21, I extend my tremendous thanks and best wishes to Shauna Townsend (Assistant Welfare Officer), Bonnie Bayliss, Ambika Padki and Aida Rosnan (Senior Welfare Representatives), Connie Brown and James Reid (Senior Campaigns Representatives), Lizzie Irwin, Lauren Hendrick, Keeva Newland and Emma Williams (Junior Campaigns Representatives), Taneisha Atkinson and Mia Connor (Junior Livers’ Out Representatives), Zach Nezianya (Tea and Toast President), Rosie Nicholls (Supply Representative), Sophie Appleby (Social Media and Marketing Representative), Liv Begley (Social Media and Marketing Representative for Campaigns) and Eliza Norman (Secretary). All resources mentioned in this report can be found on the Hatfield JCR website (www.hatfieldjcr.co.uk) under ‘Welfare’ or our Instagram page @HatfieldWelfare.

Jess Clark

(Hatfield Welfare Officer 2020-21, Assistant Welfare Officer 2019-20)