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Uni Connect (NCOP) - Linking London Update

We are very excited to have started the new academic year with our amazing engagement coordinators already meeting with students in our partner colleges and supporting them to make their next steps.

In London South East Colleges, we received a lot of feedback last year that students were desperate to start visiting HE campuses and we are delighted that so early in the term 75 students had the opportunity to visit Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance. The visit was put together through liaison between our Uni Connect staff, college tutors and Rose Bruford staff and involved one day focusing on lighting and stage management and the other on practical acting.

In Havering Sixth Form, our engagement coordinator worked over the summer period to support a number of students. The summer, particularly around results day has been identified as a time when many students need additional support. Since September, nearly 30 students have also begun one to one pathway sessions with the Uni Connect engagement coordinator.

We are very excited to have begun our first pilot of a resilience programme coordinated by the New College of the Humanities. The background to the programme was staff feedback that students are struggling with getting back into the college routine; many students have also felt that the disruption of studies has negatively impacted their chances of pursuing university, leading to decreased participation. The programme aims to boost students self-confidence, resilience and grit. The first pilot is running in Havering Sixth Form college and began on 29^th September led by an external facilitator. 4 coaching groups take part (a total of 45 students, 12 of whom are ward learners) each receiving one session a week for 4 weeks. The number and content of the sessions are tailored to each college – students in the Sixth Form pilot are receiving Acknowledge Who You Move With (Motivation), Focus, Competition and Bounce (Resilience).

In Havering Further Education College our engagement coordinator Nancy has begun one to one sessions with students. Following feedback that students wanted more one to one support we have added more structure to our delivery of these sessions to make sure we have consistent delivery and support across our colleges - we now have a ‘pathway’ menu that is both for our engagement coordinators and our students to use in these sessions and in follow up communication to track progress.

Work has been slower to get started in Barking & Dagenham College as we are still awaiting data to tell us which classes the ward learners are in.

In Coulsdon College, our engagement coordinator has begun offering one to one support to ward learners as well as engaging with 2 of our HE partners to provide personal statement support to ward learners. Students are also very exciting to be going on their first Uni Connect trip in a while – to the Create Your Future Event on 5^th October.

Finally, we are in the final stages of setting up four Brightside e-mentoring schemes which are all due to launch between late October and early November, and two of which will run again in the Spring term. 4 of our HE partners are involved; Rose Bruford, New College of the Humanities are new this year, and UAL and St Mary’s are joining us for another year. The projects cover a broad range of subject specialisms across the arts, humanities, business, social sciences, sport and law and we are also looking to add more support for STEM students before we launch.

Targeted Update

Planning is underway for small projects with adult college learners delivered by four university partners; we are hoping these will start mid-October so keep an eye out for updates. For this academic year, we are combining our monthly bulletins so there will be just one Linking London Uni Connect bulletin moving forward – it will go out in the last week of the month, contain upcoming events and helpful resources. You can subscribe to it here and see September’s issue here.

We are running a webinar series later this month (w/c October 18th) for Level 3 adult learners interested in progressing to HE. They will be subject specific covering: Nursing, Midwifery, and Health subjects; creative courses; Psychology, Sociology, and Criminology; Law. Students can register for the sessions at those links, although the timings are subject to change. Please share with your students!

To keep up to date with our Uni Connect offer, please sign up to our monthly bulletin.