LifeLab Autumn Term 2023 Newsletter

Welcome to the autumn edition of the LifeLab newsletter

With so many exciting opportunities for you, your students and your communities, our newsletter enables us to share them with you and keep you up-to-date with all things LifeLab Please share with colleagues - details about how to subscribe are below.

NEWS FROM LIFELAB HQ NEWS FROM LIFELAB HQ NEWS FROM LIFELAB HQ

While schools were on holidays over the summer, the LifeLab team were busy delivering programmes for young people interested in pursuing careers in medicine: the Experience Medicine Summer School, our Virtual Work Experience programme and excitingly, supporting an ‘Introduction to Global Health’ day. These initiatives provide prospective medics with vital insights into what it’s really like to be a doctor, and help support their university applications. Find out more in this edition. Looking forward to the new academic year, we are excited to welcome new infant and primary schools to our Early Life Lab programme this term, with our dedicated team ready to offer support and assistance in the delivery of these key health messages. Our autumn term calendar is filling up with secondary schools visits. To find out what dates we have remaining for this term and beyond contact the team lifelab@soton.ac.uk

We look forward to welcoming you to LifeLab!

SUMMER SCHOOL SUCCESS

We were excited to welcome 40 young people to our fullybooked Experience Medicine with LifeLab Summer School here at LifeLab over the holidays This annual programme offers students in years 9-11 who are interested in becoming a doctor the chance to experiment with vital clinical skills like suturing and taking blood, to meet real-life doctors and have a go at diagnosing patients Claire Spencer, a parent of a Year 9 Summer School student commented of her daughter:

LIFELAB IN NUMBERS

Total number of schools who have participated in LifeLab to date

99

15,718

Total number of students participating in Early LifeLab & LifeLab

LIFELAB FOR PRIMARY

The Experience Medicine with LifeLab Summer School is for students in years 9, 10 and 11 The next Summer School will take place in July 2024

LIFELAB IN THE MEDIA

It is a pleasure to welcome Woolston Infant School in Southampton to the Early Life Lab programme The school has just received its Early LifeLab resources, which include a cross-curricular teaching toolkit to deliver a series of fun, hands-on and interactive activities that engage children to understand key health messages To bring Early LifeLab to your primary school contact lifelab@sotonacuk It’s FREE! LifeLab recently featured in Times Higher Education magazine for our work on engaging young people with medical research through our Youth Panels This initiative engages young people as paid employees of the University of Southampton and empowers them to have a voice in real-life research Programme Manager Kath WoodsTownsend explains more in the article Read the article

Having come from a single parent background and studied at a state school, she believed she did not fit the bill of a medical student. But this experience has proved her wrong.

Latest news and opportunities from the LifeLab Programme

OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND SCHOOLS OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND SCHOOLS OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND SCHOOLS

Virtual Work Experience

Four times a year the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton offer medical work experience opportunities to students in Years 12 and 13 delivered online through Microsoft Teams LifeLab supports this programme by helping to source candidates, particularly those who meet Widening

Participation criteria

The Virtual Work Experience programme last month included a special focus on Global Health, through which students engaged with wide-ranging topics including food insecurity, maternity care, antivaccine activism, and refugee health Applications are now open for the October half term and Christmas holidays Virtual Work Experience, apply here

Focus on Vaping

During the spring and summer terms, LifeLab’s Youth Panel examined the hot topic of vaping in young people, and the role it plays in their lives

In response to its investigations, the Panel has co-created a series of resources to support schools and youth organisations to engage and educate young people with the negative consequences of vaping, which includes an innovative VR experience Stay tuned for news of the vaping resources launch

Teacher PD Day

A core component of all our LifeLab programmes is the Teacher Continuing Professional Development (PD) training

YOUTH TRENDS CONFERENCE YOUTH TRENDS CONFERENCE YOUTH TRENDS CONFERENCE

Members of the LifeLab team are looking forward to attending this conference aimed at professionals working with young people aged 10-25 LifeLab Programme Manager Kath Woods-Townsend will be speaking on the topic of ‘The rapid rise of vaping and what we can do” Find out more

KEEP IN TOUCH KEEP IN TOUCH KEEP IN TOUCH

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Really useful. Made me think. I can think of some situations in my role where I can use the SMARTER process to help children make a change

the scientific research foundations and the pedagogical approaches upon which modules are based For all our programmes, we also include training in ‘Healthy Conversation Skills’ Giving

A fantastic opportunity to learn about the research behind LifeLab, and understand your role as a teacher in the process, from delivering lessons, to healthy conversation skills.

This includes an opportunity for teachers and school staff to hear more about LifeLab, a different insight and set of skills to encourage children, young people, wider family and colleagues to identify changes and support implementation

I wanted to be part of something that I knew would help the community and potential change lives.

- LifeLab Youth Panel member