For some months now, I could see from my diary that July 2011 was going to be a very hectic month – it turned out to be more hectic than I could have imagined! For two weeks of the month I was largely occupied teaching and supporting students through doctoral summer schools, one in Ireland, the other at the Lincoln campus. These were both busy, but very enjoyable and interesting weeks. In Ireland the study school was opened by the Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, it was an honour to meet him – in his opening speech, Enda Kenny stated that it was a ’unique and special week in education in Mayo and nationally’ and that the study school was ‘creative and innovative’ – you can see the Lincoln teaching team with the Prime Minister in this photo -

As well as the study schools, I also presented, with colleagues at two conferences this month. The first was the Higher Education Academy’s national conference in Nottingham where we presented on an innovative project to develop and implement our own Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Learning in Higher Educaiton at the University of Lincoln. The second was the Joint Social Work Education Conference held in Manchester, where we presented on a SWAP (social work and policy subject centre) funded research project to explore students’ experiences of mentoring children and young people looked after by the Local Authority. These are just some of the areas of work that made July such a busy month – all in all, I felt as though I was hardly at home all month! So, I am looking forward to a chance to catch up and have some annual leave in August!


