All student email, Wednesday 5 August 2020

This week, we are focussing on our student support and wellbeing services and how you will be able to continue to access these in September.  Services will be accessible online with some in-person support available where appropriate and safe to do so.

We are also pleased to inform you who won an Outstanding Teacher Award, following your nominations, and we are asking for your help to improve the student intranet.

If you have any suggestions for future issues, or any stories for us to shine a spotlight on, please email: studentcommunications@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

 

Supporting you in September

It is important to us that our students can access advice and wellbeing support, and over the last four months our teams have continued to do just that; in many cases supporting you at home from their home!  As we plan a return to campus we will also be holding on to much of the good practice we have learned over these many months, supporting people remotely and offering an inclusive and accessible provision.

 

Wellbeing Officers

Your Wellbeing Officers work within your Schools and Colleges and have local knowledge of your subject area. The teams have been working remotely and from September will continue to provide online support in the majority of cases. We will not be offering any drop-ins at first, so that we can maintain a Covid-safe environment, but we will be able to offer bookable in-person appointments where these are needed and in a safe environment.

 

Mental Health & Wellbeing

From September, we will be offering a fully online counselling and wellbeing service to students based in the UK, using email and (virtual) face-to-face appointments. We will offer bookable in-person appointments as required and when it is safe to do so.   You can always access our range of self-care and self-help materials alongside information about crisis services and other resources that are available on our student intranet.

 

Pause 

Working with The Children’s Society and Forward Thinking Birmingham, the PAUSE team provide early interventions to support mental health and wellbeing.  We have continued to offer a telephone and email service throughout the restricted-operations period and are leading the way in developing socially distanced outdoor activities, such as walking appointments in association with Winterbourne House and Gardens. Our usual drop-in model will be restricted at the start of the new academic year, but in person support will grow and the team will continue to support students remotely.

 

Student Disability Service

The Student Disability team will continue to work remotely and offer in-person appointments as needed at the start of the academic year. For students with a declared disability, long term mental health condition or a specific learning need, your Reasonable Adjustment Plans and any Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) funded support will still be in place, where eligible. If your needs have changed or if you need any additional advice or guidance you can contact the team: disability@contacts.bham.ac.uk.

 

Multi-Faith Chaplaincy

Chaplains from a range of faith traditions are available to meet with students, either online or in person, whether you want help navigating faith on campus or would simply value a non-judgemental listening ear. St Francis Hall, the home of the Multi-Faith Chaplaincy, will be open, but we will of course be working hard to keep you safe. This means that there will be restrictions on the numbers of visitors allowed in at any one time.  In early September, we will release our timetable of activities and opportunities to get involved in the life of the Chaplaincy as well as further details about room bookings.

 

Your health:  registering with a Doctor

It is important that you are able to access local health services by registering with a local Doctor (General Practitioner [GP] Surgery) close to your term time address.  A GP can provide support for your mental and physical health, and they are usually the first health service you should contact when you are experiencing a problem.  It is simple and FREE - and for International Students, the immigration health surcharge will entitle Tier 4 students to access NHS care in the UK at no additional cost in the same way as a permanent UK resident.

 

ON FILM: Shaping your future

In the latest Shaping Your Future conversation Hannah, a Biomedical Science student, chats to Dr Sarah Pontefract about how electronic patient records have proved invaluable during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Watch the video

 

OTA Winners 2020

We are delighted to announce the five winners of the Outstanding Teaching Awards 2020. The awards are a joint initiative between the University and Guild of Students, designed to recognise and celebrate excellent teaching staff.

Find out who won

 

We need you…

… to participate in a focus group on the current student intranet. Let us know what you want to see included on the site and how you prefer to navigate the site. Please email us at studentcommunications@contacts.bham.ac.uk to express your interest.

Get involved by emailing Studentcomunications@contacts.bham.ac.uk

 

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