Category: Stranmillis News

Staff from the BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies [ECS] degree at Stranmillis held a farewell tea party for their final year tutorial group students who are about to graduate in July.

The tea party marked the end of their three years of full-time study; both staff and students enjoyed the opportunity to chat, reminisce and hear about future plans for the following year from the students.

In Year 1, ECS students at Stranmillis are allocated a Professional Development [PDP] tutor and are assigned to a tutor group for the duration of their course. They get the opportunity to meet in these small groups on four occasions each year to discuss their professional development. This PDP Tutor also visits and monitors them throughout their extensive placement activities, supporting their development as Level VI graduate practitioners. PDP tutors encourage the members of their tutor group to undertake the University College’s extensive programme of ‘degree enhancement’ activities which broaden and extend their knowledge and skills, over and above their degree content. The process ensures that graduating cohorts are ready for the next stage in their careers as they engage in postgraduate study, or enter the world of work in early childhood education and care.

The ECS team wish the ‘Class of 2019’ all the very best in their future careers and hope they will keep in contact with Stranmillis as they explore where their ECS degree will take them!

A rise in social media activity on how to best address ‘Adverse Childhood Experiences’ (ACEs) demonstrates a growing global concern for those who work with children. Teachers, schools and other educational professionals are central to identifying children who are dealing with one or multiple ACEs and to provide appropriate support to them. ACE awareness is now an integral part of Stranmillis degree programmes and as part of our wider community engagement we were delighted to jointly host and organise a ‘Relationships for Resilience: Show-casing effective trauma informed practice’ conference.

The conference was a collaborative project between Stranmillis University College, Barnardo’s NI, Women’s Aid Federation NI and Connected for Life. Representatives from each of these organisations formed the TIPER team (Trauma Informed Practice for Effective Relationships network) and organised the conference to inspire and deliver messages of hope and resilience. The TIPERs agreed that there had been a lot of awareness raising around ACEs but that many practitioners remained unsure about what they could do next to break cycles of adversity and how to really make a difference.

Roisin O’Neill from Barnardo’s said:

‘We wanted to motivate practitioners and students and influence change across the different sectors to bring about a more trauma-informed and trauma-responsive society. The key message was to be about the power of relationships and human connections in bringing about healing and transformation, and helping children to thrive and fulfil their potential.’

The conference was attended by 200 practitioners and 50 students and was a huge success. It was opened by Stranmillis drama specialist students, pictured with College tutor Dr Bronagh McKee who produced the drama to showcase the importance of trauma informed practice for teachers in understanding children’s reality of adversity. This was followed by a powerful film – ‘Robert’s Story’ which told of a young local man’s journey from adversity and offending to resilience and hope. The keynote speech was from inspirational Jaz Ampaw-Farr, Resilience Ninja and TED Talk presenter, who told her story of growing up in the midst of appalling poverty, trauma and hardship and the five ‘everyday heroes’ (all teachers), whose belief in her literally saved her life.

Jaz took time to view Stranmillis student posters on adverse childhood experience and trauma informed practice and said

‘I’m blown away with the work that your (Stranmillis) students get in relation to trauma informed practice’ and tweeted ‘My reason for celebration today is connecting with these phenomenal women (TIPER team) leading the ACEs revolution in Northern Ireland’.

The afternoon provided a range of workshops that showcased and celebrated models of best trauma-informed practice from early years settings, schools and community groups across Northern Ireland. These provided delegates with innovative ideas, strategies and practice tools to help children overcome adversity, build resilience and fulfil their potential. The University College will continue to embed ACE awareness trauma informed practice in its core degree programmes and looks forward to hosting more events such as the one highlighted here.

Mrs Diane McClelland, Stranmillis Literacy lecturer, visited eight primary schools in Uganda with a view to ascertaining how best the children and teachers in these schools could be supported.

Diane is a trustee of a charity called Charlene’s Project which has been working in Uganda for almost ten years.  The charity was set up by a young girl, Charlene Barr, from Dollingstown, who had been a pupil in Diane’s P.2. class in Waringstown Primary School. Charlene, the adopted daughter of Dr Richard and Mrs Janice Barr, suffered from cystic fibrosis. Following a working trip to Uganda with her family in 2008, the country and its people captured Charlene’s heart.  When her condition prevented her from studying for her A levels, determined to make a difference, Charlene’s indomitable attitude was “If I can’t go to school, I will build a school for children who don’t have a school!”  While waiting for her double lung transplant Charlene mobilised many people, and along with the support of her family and friends, tirelessly raised money to build her first school in Africa.

Very sadly, Charlene was never to have her life saving operation.  The weekend the foundations were laid of Charlene’s Project’s first school in Uganda, was the weekend of Charlene’s funeral.

Following her death, Charlene’s family found her journals and diaries which spoke of her hopes and dreams to help the children of Uganda. The charity has continued to grow and it reached its tenth anniversary in 2020. It has supported communities in Uganda and Guatemala and also refugee children, through humanitarian, educational and medical support, including drilling water wells, and child sponsorship programmes.  In a bid to make a real difference the charity seeks to partner with other organisations working on the ground in the various countries and inputs into indigenous projects which have improved and continue to improve the lives of so many.

Reflecting on the trip, Diane said, “It is an immense privilege to serve on the Board of Trustees of such an inspirational charity which is making a real difference in so many ways educationally and medically to so many lives in Uganda.  Charlene’s heartfelt dreams continue to be realised as the work keeps on growing.”

As part of the recent trip with CEO Dr Richard Barr and fellow trustee, Mr Basil O’Malley, Diane visited a cluster of primary schools in rural areas of the Kiriandongo region of Uganda.  Time was spent meeting with management committees of each school, teachers, pupils and parents.  These schools and communities are being supported by Charlene’s Project alongside the charity’s longer-term vision of building a much-needed secondary school in the region.  It is hoped that Charlene’s Project will bring a team of teachers and student teachers to work alongside and support the teachers and children in these schools during the summer of 2020 and beyond in projects spanning a few years.

The last word must surely belong to the special girl whose vision started it all.  Charlene’s blog, Tuesday 18 August 2009, “The need of the children in Uganda shocked me, and I saw that they were even being deprived of something as small as an education, something which in this country we take for granted.” Having asked her family to go and find a school which needed rebuilding Charlene was delighted when they sent home news of the school they had found. Charlene’s blog continues “I really do feel like this is the right school to be starting my project with and I pray that it will be the first of many that Charlene’s Project has helped to contribute towards.”

To find out more about the charity Charlene’s Project, visit their website www.charlene’sproject.org.

To find out more about Charlene’s amazing story read “Chosen” the book she asked her brother, David Barr, to write, to promote the work in Africa and help support other adopted children.

Belfast in the 1970s – remember the colours, the music, the flares…. the Troubles.

‘The Professor and The Factory’ is the latest play from Stranmillis University College lecturer and national award-winning playwright, Dr. Michael Ievers. The premiere will be staged at the Sean Hollywood Arts Centre in Newry on the 17th May, before the run continues at the Black Box in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter on the 24th and 25th June and at Studio 1A as part of the Open House Arts Festival in Bangor on the 9th August.

Commissioned by Marble Productions, this is Michael’s third play, and the cast includes not only the renowned political journalist and actor, Ivan Little, but no less than four Stranmillis alumni, in Dawn Murphie, Adam Baird, Michael McCandless and Jason Nugent. After the play’s performance Ivan Little is interviewed about his new book, ‘Reporting The Troubles.’

‘The Professor and The Factory,’ transports you back to Belfast in the 1970s, and to a moment in time when the ‘weemin’ had their say. It’s based upon a true story about the fortunes of a failing shirt factory so transformed by the arrival of a professor from Queen’s University that during the Ulster Workers’ Council strike of 1974, the women of the shirt factory repeatedly breached the barricades to keep the factory going. This is the story of these women.

On 7th April a group of ten BEd students from Stranmillis and St. Mary’s University Colleges with two lecturers, Dr Anita Gracie and Dr Gerard McCann, met for the first time and headed off to Poland for a week-long intensive course in Internationalisation and Diversity.

This course involved learning about how our partner universities, Krakow and Krosno, facilitate international programmes for multicultural groups of students and how they use technology to collaborate with university classes across the world. The students had the opportunity to participate in one of these classes with East Carolina University via videoconference link where they discussed whether English will remain the global language in the future, and what form of English should be taught to students to best facilitate global communication.

The students and staff also heard about local Polish Easter traditions and then did some traditional craft activities such as decorating eggs with découpage, yarn-wrapping and sequins. They were able to share some traditional Belfast fudge with the international students as we all worked together – this went down a treat!

Another aspect of this course was going on field-trips to sites of historical interest. The group visited Auschwitz and reflected on how this place was an emotional and sobering reminder of what happened when people failed to see the common humanity and inherent worth of every single person on earth. They also also visited Lancut (pronounced Winesoot…?) Castle, where they marvelled at the lavish extravagance of the interior decoration of this ‘mini-Versailles’. On the last day of the trip they had the opportunity to learn about glassmaking – the primary industry of the town of Krosno where they had been based for the last four days.

One of the main benefits of this programme was the opportunity for the students to really get to know one another and to learn together about how diversity and globalisation is shaping the university experience for students all over the world and indeed, how technology and internationalisation are shaping how the world communicates – Professional Learning for a Changing Society in action!

Jill Magennis, Stranmillis Lecturer in Early Years Education and PhD student in the Queen’s School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, recently returned home from a study visit to Israel; she reflects on this visit below:

‘I recently spent time in Israel in association with the Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation (CESI) and the LINKS network which is part of the international Early Childhood Peace Consortium (ECPC) in partnership with UNICEF, Yale, Harvard and New York University which seeks to support the development and evaluation of early childhood development (ECD) programmes in societies affected by conflict.

My PhD is associated with the LINKS network, led by the Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation under the direction of Professor Paul Connolly. LINKS currently works in six countries and is seeking to expand the network to include additional partner countries, including Israel.

My visit enabled me to continue data collection for my doctoral studies and I also had the opportunity to engage in the Bi-National Meeting: Israel and Northern Ireland, organised by Professor Margalit Ziv from Kaye Academic College of Education and Professor Dorit Aram from Tel Aviv University in partnership the MOFET Institute. This provided opportunities to discuss current research surrounding peacebuilding in early childhood in Israel and also learn more about the international work of LINKS shared by colleagues from Queen’s University, Belfast: Professor Paul Connolly, Dr Sarah Millar, Dr Laura Dunne and Dr Nicole Craig. This was also in collaboration with Dr Siobhan Fitzpatrick (CEO) and Pauline Walmsley (Deputy CEO) from Early Years – the organisation for young children. The meetings explored possible opportunities in the future to work together to support the development of early childhood development (ECD) programmes that seek to contribute to peacebuilding in Israel. A number of similarities were identified between this work and various initiatives being undertaken through the LINKS partner countries.

Speaking of the visit, LINKS Director, Professor Paul Connolly said: “We have had a very productive and inspiring two days learning about the work currently being undertaken in relation to ECD for peacebuilding in Israel and sharing experiences and perspectives. The issues facing the early childhood sector in Israel are complex and challenging. We were impressed by the commitment of colleagues working in this context to promote inclusion and respect for diversity and to challenge prejudices and discrimination.”

Thank you to Professor Connolly for his support in making this visit possible – I found it to be both productive and insightful as I continue my exploration into the experiences of educators in relation to promoting respect for diversity and ways forward for peacebuilding in conflict affected societies. My immediate priority is to complete my PhD. However, there are opportunities for me to continue and extend my research in this area with colleagues in Israel as part of my ongoing involvement in the LINKS network.

I would like to thanks my colleagues at Stranmillis, Dr Noel Purdy, Dr Patricia Eaton and Dr Glenda Walsh for their ongoing support with my studies and enabling me to make this visit possible to complete this phase of my doctoral studies. I look forward to sharing this work on peacebuilding with students across our PGCE, BA in Early Childhood Studies and BEd Primary in relation to PDMU, inclusion and cultural diversity.

“…to inspire others, we must continue to think of peace and know that peace is possible. What we dwell upon we help bring to manifestation. One little person giving all of her time to peace makes news. Many people giving some of their time can make history.”  – The Peace Pilgrim

To find out more about CESI and the Links network, click on the links below:

Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation: https://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/cesi/

LINKS network: https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/links/