Outreach and Widening Participation

2014-15 Yearbook

Contents

1. Welcome to Widening Participation at RVC 3

2. Summary of activities 4

3. Events by month 6

4. Case studies: Schools 8

BSc and MSci Open Evening

Café Scientifique

Loan Boxes- Crick Institute

5. Case studies: Public and community outreach 11

Science Festivals

Great British Bioscience Festival

Latitude

Family Fun Days at RVC sites

6. Night at the Vet College 15

7. Sutton Trust Summer School 16

8. Brightside Trust 17

9. Farm visits for schools 18

10. Looking ahead 19

Acknowledgements 20

Widening Participation Staff

Jon Parry - Deputy Director of RVC Access

Dr Grace Sim- Outreach Development Manager

Isi Adeola - Outreach Development Assistant

2 Report complied by Grace Sim

1. Welcome to Widening Participation at RVC At the RVC, we are committed to attracting the best and brightest students no matter what background they come from. We want to ensure that applicants to the RVC, and to other universities, are not held back by social and economic barriers and that our student cohort reflects the diverse society we live in. This is why we provide activities, events and courses that help to widen participation not only here, but across HE in general.

The chart above illustrates our approach to working with young people; the older they are, the more in depth our work.

As a Higher Education Institute our Widening Participation aims are:

• to ensure that our commitment to equality of opportunity is reflected fully in the

recruitment, admission, and subsequent support, both academic and non-academic, of students from all backgrounds;

• to make information about the veterinary and related professions, and about the requirements of entry to these professions, more widely available;

• to continue to facilitate the development of the profile of the veterinary and related professions so that they more closely reflect the communities that they serve;

• to make a positive contribution to the quality of education and student aspirations in the districts in which its campuses are located;

• to provide a national lead and focus in widening participation in the veterinary and related disciplines.

Widening Participation is part of the RVC Access Team. This Yearbook summarises activity in Widening Participation in the year 2014-15, including events which WP staff managed or worked owing to a mixture of WP and Recruitment students attending.

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2. Summary of activities

How many people did we meet? 40 769 (20 273 in 2013-14)

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5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

Primary Secondary Public/Teachers

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Audience

WP/Outreach contacts 2014-15

2014-15

2013-14

There has been a strategic move to work with more secondary pupils; in particular Year 12s. We have increased our involvement in Science Fairs and festivals for the general public. This is based on the recognition that events with wide age ranges are good environments to promote Postgraduate courses in addition to encouraging prospective Undergraduates. We have benefited from being associated with organisations such as the Royal Institution and Society of Biology, who have reciprocally invited us to events they are taking part in.

2. Summary of activities

Where did our audiences come from?

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We have actioned our strategic aim to work with HEFCE Polar Quintiles 1 and 2 (lowest participation in HE) in a number of ways: • Involvement in Science Festivals in low polar quintile areas e.g. Great British

Bioscience Festival, Hackney; Brighton Science Festival, and Middlesbrough Science Festival.

• Prioritising education activities with pupils from quintiles 1 and 2 e.g. Sutton Trust Summer School participants

• Isi Adeola visiting low polar quintile schools (identified through Sutton Trust Summer School applicants) with a Wild Animal Biology Masters Talk e.g. Plymouth, Grimsby

2014-15 2013-14

3. Events by month

In addition to Afternoon Anatomy and visiting schools for outreach sessions, we also undertook new projects and specific initiatives as follows in 2014-15.

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Month Date Audience Event Location

September 17-23 Secondary pupils RVC On Tour London, Bury Cardiff, Hampshire

September 25-27 General Public Gravity Fields Festival Grantham

October 5 General Public Udder Marathon Herts

October, April, May, July

11 General Public Ri Family Fun Days and Adult Lates events

Royal Institution

October , March

General Public Night at the Vet College RVC Camden

November, February, April, May

Secondary pupils Dairy and Lambing Days RVC Farm

November 13-16 Schools and General Public

Great British Bioscience Festival- SML

Hackney

November 26 Teachers BSc Launch event RVC Camden

December 4 Secondary Pupils Café Scientifique with Hackney New School

RVC Camden

December 21 Secondary pupils Nancy Rothwell Award Prize Day, joint with Society of Biology

RVC Camden

February, April, May

Families New RVC Family Museum Open Days

RVC Camden

February 13-15 General Public Brighton Science Festival Brighton

March 7 General Public Middlesbrough Science Festival RVC Camden

March 11-21 All Various Science Week events RVC Camden/ outreach

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Month Date Audience Event Location

April 15 Primary pupils Loan boxes; joint with the Crick Institute

Camden schools

May 9 Prospective Students

Open Day (joint with RVC Access) RVC Hawkshead

May 26 Secondary pupils Museum Open Day for Sutton Trust applicants

RVC Camden

June 1 Secondary pupils Brightside E Mentoring scheme Online

June 5-6 Schools and General Public

Cheltenham Science Festival

Cheltenham

June 7 General Public Open Farm Sunday RVC Farm

June 8-23 Primary/Secondary pupils

Sylvia Adams Funded Farm Schools Project

RVC Farm

June 25 Prospective students

BSc Evening event RVC Camden

June 30 Secondary Big Bang Fair South Ardingly Showground

July 1 Secondary Big Bang Fair East Newmarket

July 2 General Public Norfolk Show Royal Agricultural showground

July 16-20 General Public Latitude Festival Henham Park Suffolk

July 26-30 Prospective students

Sutton Trust Summer School

RVC Hawkshead

August 2-14 Prospective Students

Pre Vet Summer School (Managed by Ryan Donno; delivery supported by WP staff)

RVC Hawkshead

August 26 Teachers Sutton Trust CPD, joint with Imperial and King’s Colleges

RVC Camden

August 29-30 General Public ‘Curious’, Knowledge Quarter Launch festival

Granary Square

4. Case studies: Schools

4.1 BSc and MSci Open Evening

June 25th saw a new format of Open Evening, aimed at raising the profile of the BSc and Msci courses for Year 12 pupils. The need to hold this open evening arose throughout the year and this evening activity in June was proposed as a joint activity with academic staff, to encourage future applications.

The evening included a talk by course leader Dr Charlotte Lawson, and a practical activity designed to teach participants to correctly identify a diabetic sample. Feedback was positive and included:

I learnt about the biological sciences courses and it is now in my top 2 options of what I want to study at university pupil, Dr Challoners’ High School

I would definitely consider the different courses that RVC are offering that I hadn't known a great deal about beforehand pupil, Chadwell Heath Academy

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4. Case studies: Schools

4.2 Café Scientifique, Hackney New School

Julian Drewe previously offered a ‘Pandemics Masterclass’ event. We worked with Hackney New School’s Headteacher Lesley Falconer to plan an after school event for Year 8s.

They were presented with a number of clues, and asked to work out what the common theme was, in order to identify Julian’s research. He then discussed the clues in turn and explained how they were relevant to epidemiology. Clues included an inflatable glove with questions such as ‘Find Morocco. Why has Morocco been expelled from the 2015 African Cup of Nations?’ (refused to host the event due to Ebola risk); and leaflets from The Royal Free hospital where Ebola victims were quarantined. Cuddly toys of animals which can contract the same diseases as humans (such as bats and camels), were hidden in the museum for pupils to find!

This format is fun and interactive and leads to useful conversation, therefore we would like to expand by running Café Scientifique events for Year 12s in future.

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4. Case studies: Schools

4.3 Loan Boxes for Camden Primary Schools

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We have worked with Clare Davy, Education Manager at the Francis Crick Institute, to offer Loan boxes to Camden Primary Schools. Containing comparable bones specimens from horses and dogs, these loan boxes have proved very popular and have been circulating during the Summer Term. The Francis Crick Institute are managing logistics; however they include resources which were developed jointly, and encourage Camden Schools to book a visit to our museum. We have seen increased visits from local Camden primary schools based on this initiative.

5. Case studies: Public/community outreach

5.1 Science Festivals:

Grantham, Brighton, Middlesbrough, Cheltenham, Big Bang South, East and North East

Following last year’s participation in Cheltenham Science Festival, RVC Outreach activities were invited to Gravity Fields in Grantham, Brighton Science Festival, Middlesbrough (where we were hosted by the Society of Biology). The BBC paid for our Student Ambassadors and our accommodation and travel at Cheltenham this year, to support Professor Alan Wilson’s engaging lecture about the Structure and Motion lab’s work with cheetahs and domestic cats.

These events are fantastic hubs to engage schools from the area in hands on activities, and our veterinary skills activities are extremely popular. We have developed from last year by borrowing new specimens from Richard Prior, such as an elephant femur and a collection of pathology specimens for young people to identify the disease the animal suffered from. We would like to include more science hands on activities and this will be a focus for next year’s development.

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5. Case studies: Public/community outreach

5.2 Great British Bioscience Festival, Bethnal Green

Anna Wilson and Grace Sim worked on a bid to be part of the Great British Bioscience Festival during early 2014; the Structure and Motion Lab and RVC Access collaborated to produce festival materials for the stand ‘Running, Jumping, Flying’ for this public engagement event which took place from November 13-15 in Museum Gardens, Bethnal Green. Since then, RVC Access has worked with 15 Tower Hamlets/Newham schools resulting from the contacts made in Hackney. The materials made for the event, such as a circuit board illustrating the GPS collar components, have become a permanent feature for festivals in 2015. We are very grateful to the Structure and Motion lab team for their time and effort in making this a success!

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5. Case studies: Public/community outreach

5.3 Latitude Festival

Latitude Festival held a schools day to celebrate their 10th anniversary, and RVC were asked to be part of it. We were also invited to stay for the subsequent two days. During that time over 40 000 people were on site, and we met over 6000 of those in the young people’s area. We were loaned a tent for the occasion, and set up veterinary and science activities.

Non-science festivals are an emerging area for community engagement by science communication organisations, and the advantage of meeting new audiences at these events is that the visitors have time to talk; plus they are not already ‘science supporters’ who would attend on site events at RVC.

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5. Case studies: Public/community outreach

5.4 Family Fun Days at RVC Sites

New this year, we have offered Family Fun Days at RVC’s Anatomy Museum in Camden. Supplemented by art and hands on veterinary skills activities, these have booked fast during winter months.

In addition, we supported Open Farm Sunday with Family activities. We intend to continue offering Family Fun Days at half terms and in the holidays.

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6. Night at the Vet College

The themes for Night at the Vet College this year were ‘Supersize Animals’ and ‘Reproduction’. These events have snowballed from 200 visitors in 2012 to over 750 in 2015, which we see as a plateau in terms of visitor numbers owing to our maximum capacity on site at Camden.

Our funding was from The Physiological Society and additionally from the Society for Reproduction and Fertility (with thanks to Dr Andrew Childs for assitance with this funding).

In order to secure longer term funding we are applying to the Wellcome Trust for a people Award, to try and embed the work which has been done in establishing these events.

In 2015 the winter event will be on November 11th, with a theme about Animal Aging, to link in with The Physiological Society. In 2016 we are working collaboratively with The Physiological Society on a number of events on the theme ‘Elite Performance in Animals’. This will mean that our some of events are funded without having to apply for Public Engagement Grants.

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7. Summer Schools

Summer Schools are for approx. 50 students aged 17plus, and are residential at Hawkshead. As well as running and managing the Sutton Trust Summer School, for the first time RVC Access ran the Pre Vet Summer school, which RVC WP and Outreach staff supported.

Our Sutton Trust Summer school was filmed by BBC news this year as background to an article about university fees!

RVC Access has amassed a considerable amount of learning with regard to successful, engaging Summer Schools, which see the attendees leaving with a host of new friends and renewed motivation to focus on studies and work experience.

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8. Brightside Trust

The Brightside Trust is an e-mentoring scheme, a means of linking prospective and current students to provide support for applications.

We have moved on from last year’s initial ‘Virtual Work experience’ offer to give more management to Brightside. We have co-developed a 6 week programme which we have offered to unsuccessful Sutton Trust Summer School applicants, whom we were unable to offer a place due to capacity; despite them having good potential as students.

They were recruited at a Museum Open Day in May 2015, then took part in the programme until the end of the Summer Term 2015; receiving certificates to finish. We had some students who were unable to take up our places at the Sutton Trust Summer School at the last minute owing to personal circumstances changing. We were able to offer these remaining places to E-mentees who had put in considerable effort and would benefit from coming to the Summer School. It was an advantage to be able to link on site and online learning opportunities.

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9. Bolton’s Park Farm

Dairy and Lambing Days have now become an established part of the year, running in half terms and holidays. We have found that a number of International Summer School students previously attended Dairy and Lambing Days, therefore they are a useful means of introducing prospective students to RVC and meet the need to gain work experience, particularly for young people from cities.

This year Sarah Seymour from Development secured funding from the Sylvia Adams Trust, £5000 for a Farm Schools project for local Hertfordshire Schools to visit. A full evaluation report of the 8 school visits which resulted has been written by a freelancer who was employed to evaluate the project; contact gsim@rvc.ac.uk for this. Katrina Thomson worked as a freelance educator to deliver the sessions, managed by WP and Outreach together with Paul Christian. Considerable effort went into arranging this project, and teachers reported positive learning outcomes for pupils.

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10. Looking ahead: 2015-16

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Month Date Audience Event Location

September 7-10 Secondary pupils

British Science Festival Bradford

October 7 Secondary Pupils

Monthly Masterclasses Start

RVC Camden

October, February, May

General Public Family Fun Days London

November 11 General Public Night at the Vet College RVC Camden

December 21 Secondary pupils

Nancy Rothwell Award RVC Camden

January General Public Elite Athletes events with The Society of Physiology

Various

February 17 Secondary pupils

Horse Day with the Loriners’ Society

RVC Camden

March 11-21 Secondary pupils

Science Week Various

March TBC Secondary pupils

Big Bang Fair Birmingham

April Secondary pupils

Dairy /Lambing Days RVC Hawkshead

May 7 Prospective Students

Open Day RVC Hawkshead

June TBC Secondary pupils

Big Bang Fairs

RVC Hawkshead

TBC TBC General Public Ri Family Fun Days/Lates London

July TBC General Public Latitude/ other Festival TBC

July 25-29 Secondary Pupils

Sutton Trust Summer School

RVC Hawkshead

11. Acknowledgements

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In addition to staff named previously in this document, we would like to thank all staff who have generously given time to support RVC Access/ Widening Participation and Outreach events, particularly the following departments:

• Academic Development • Accommodation • ACT • Admissions • Anatomy Services • Beaumont Sainsbury Animal Hospital • Bolton’s Park Farm • Catering • Clinical Skills Centre • Comparative Biomedical Sciences • Development • E Media

• Estates • Equine Referral Hospital • Finance • Library And Information Services • Marketing • Pathology • Queen Mother Animal Hospital • Reception and Security • Registry • SML • Student Ambassadors • VEEPH