Hello from your student voice leader

I just wanted to say 'Hello' as your new student voice leader. My contact details can be found in the 'Programme Voice Folder' which is near the bottom of your module study page. Please email me any thoughts both good and bad about your experience so far.

The purpose of the role, is for me to feed-back anything positive and non-positive, you may be experiencing, so the information can be used to make any improvements necessary.

We have a PVG meeting next Tuesday, I'm really sorry, but I won't be in the group chat on Sunday morning as I am flying at that time, it would have been an opportunity for you to share your thoughts with me, so please do email me (before Tuesday) with anything you think needs to be discussed

We had a pre-meeting chat with Adesola which raised some interesting points;

Firstly there is a folder in the 'Programme Voice Folder' called 'Student Sharing Space', this was created after the last PVG meeting. The idea of the folder is that we as students can put in 'hints and tips' for other students, to share what has worked well for us. As you will note it is empty, mainly due to the fact we didn't know it was there! It would be great if we could all add something that would help make the journey smoother for everyone else on the course. If you have any tips, please email them to me and I will get them added to the folder.

Secondly, Adesola and Helen would really like to help us create ways to function better as a community. As a learning environment, we can all sometimes feel very isolated. Any ideas that you think would help facilitate us feeling more connected would be very welcome. With this in mind, I wonder whether a whatsApp group would help the blogging process, we could whatsApp when we have posted or responded to a blog, allowing us to engage in a more immediate way than is occurring at the moment - I would be happy to set this up, email me if you think this is a good idea and would like to join, or if you have a better suggestion. (email details in the PVG folder)

Thirdly, I anticipate there will be issues you want to share, but please also let me know the positives, all courses need to justify there existence in the current financial climate and I believe this course offers a really unique learning experience and we should celebrate that too.

Hope to hear from you soon
xx

My MAPP map and MORE

Having worked my way through the handbook again, I am beginning to see it as a map (a MAPP map) and like all maps the more you get to know the terrain the easy it is to spot your route through it.
On my first journey through, all the roads seemed equally interesting and I spent a lot of time meandering off the beaten track.
Second time; I was more aware of where the routes would lead but still got diverted by points that interested me on the way.
Third time and I'm able to keep to a focused journey, there are still byways I want to explore, to see if they lead somewhere surprising, but I'm now secure that the map (handbook) will steer me back to where I feel I need to be - Hooray a little progress.

I also took a look at the MORE form - I'm quite adept at grant forms, my process is to look at the actual form as early as possible. I fill in all the sections I can immediately (name, address etc), note down all the questions I know how to fill in, but need more time to do them justice. Then I note all the sections that don't mean anything to me and need more research. All I can say is even for someone used to forms, it's large! My advise would be to familiarise yourselves with it as soon as possible.