Kent Law Lecturer Johanne Thompson has been awarded Kent’s prestigious Barbara Morris Prize in recognition of outstanding work in the area of learning support.
The first prize of £2,500 was awarded to Johanne for her work developing and directing the Law School’s annual Revision Conference and for the sustained impact that the conference has had upon stage 2 undergraduate student performance.
The selection panel, chaired by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education Professor April McMahon, reviewed evaluative data which demonstrated an uplift in exam performance for students attending the conference across the years and described the conference as a “worthwhile and beneficial initiative”.
Johanne said: ‘I am delighted to receive this award, not only for myself but on behalf of Kent Law School. Without the commitment of all the module convenors and the Law School’s Professional Services staff, this conference would not have been the success that it has been. The students who attended should also be congratulated; these revision sessions can, on occasion, be quite intense.’
Head of Kent Law School Professor Toni Williams said: ‘The Revision Conference is an outstanding initiative that offers students timely support tailored to their particular needs at exam time. The conference has reached out effectively to students across the School’s large and diverse stage 2 cohort and achieved impressive levels of student participation and engagement. Its success is evident in the students’ reports of increased confidence to tackle the exams and, significantly, in the substantially better exam results of conference participants.’
The Revision Conference has continued to evolve since it was first run in 2015. Designed to help consolidate learning of core modules, the conference provides sessions on how to apply knowledge and on how to employ the exam techniques required to gain maximum marks. Growing numbers of students have been taking advantage of the conference over the last three years with up to 350 students registering for individual sessions.
This year’s event, held in Woolf College in May, was extended from two to three days and included revision lectures and workshops delivered by the convenors of core modules in EU law LW593, Law of Obligations LW597, Equity and Trusts LW598 and Land Law LW599. There were sessions delivered by the University’s Student Learning Advisory Service as well as additional sessions in mindfulness and meditation exercises to help alleviate exam stress. The Law School’s Law Advisers and the Kent Law School Skills Hub team were also available during the conference to offer support. Additional resources were made available to students on Moodle (the University’s virtual learning environment).
It is hoped next year’s event, to be held in Woolf College in May 2018, will be opened up to include sessions on optional modules such as The Law of Evidence LW518 and Company Law and Capitalism LW520.
Johanne is convenor of the Client Interviewing module at Kent Law School. Earlier this year she helped organise the Brown-Mosten International Client Consultation Competition which was hosted by Kent. She is also the Law School’s Deputy Director of Mooting and is Deputy Director of Admissions with Canadian responsibilities.
The Barbara Morris Prize is awarded annually to applicants who can demonstrate excellent practice and provide appropriate evidence of their impact on the student experience at Kent. Last year the Barbara Morris Prize was awarded to both Kent Law School’s Skills Hub team (Dr Kirsty Horsey, Ben Watson, Callum Borg, Katia Neofytou and Jonjo Brady) and the team from the Law School’s Student Advice Office (Jude O’Connor, Jo Harvey, Hattie Peacock and Dr Paul Hubert).
Johanne will receive her award from the University’s Vice-Chancellor at a lunchtime ceremony for all the winners of this year’s annual University Teaching prizes on Wednesday 4 October in Darwin Conference Suite.