{"id":6010,"date":"2021-01-20T16:07:23","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T16:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/?p=6010"},"modified":"2021-01-20T16:07:23","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T16:07:23","slug":"safety-and-wellbeing-of-students-remains-top-priority-for-kent-law-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/safety-and-wellbeing-of-students-remains-top-priority-for-kent-law-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Safety and wellbeing of students remains top priority for Kent Law School"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"lead\">As teaching begins for the new term, the safety and wellbeing of staff and students remains a top priority\u00a0for Kent Law School (KLS) in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>As a result of lockdown all teaching at KLS is being delivered online until the end of February. Student feedback from last term reflects a high level of student appreciation for the way that KLS put student choice at the heart of all its planning.<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on the experience of delivering teaching and learning during the previous lockdowns, Head of School Professor Lydia Hayes praised students for paying close attention to campus safety measures: \u2018Our students were brilliant last term: mask wearing; disinfecting; staying distanced; respecting the rules.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The Law School was able to adapt quickly and effectively as the pandemic developed in 2020 and Professor Hayes says KLS has much to be proud of: \u2018Last term, as well as being able to offer all our students the option to be taught online, our dedicated team of teaching staff made it possible for us to offer every KLS student the choice of face-to-face learning. This meant we could give every KLS student the choice of learning whatever their circumstances, health, background or location around the world.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Some of the adaptations the Law School has made for the 20\/21 academic year in response to the pandemic include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Putting student choice at the centre<\/strong> of KLS\u2019s teaching programme (with students opting in or out of on-campus or online learning) and in recognition that our\u00a0student community is global and diverse<\/li>\n<li><strong>Respecting<\/strong> <strong>the expressed wishes of each student about how they wanted to engage with study:<\/strong> making new groups, overflow groups, pivoting groups, making big groups and small groups &#8211; being exceptionally flexible<\/li>\n<li><strong>Adapting lecture-delivery in response to student feedback<\/strong> to make the content more accessible as a series of \u2018bite-sized&#8217; pre-recordings<\/li>\n<li>Providing <strong>extra contact time for all students<\/strong> with a new \u2018Module Hour\u2019 and mini-tasks to help students get the most out of their lectures and learning<\/li>\n<li><strong>Extending the KLS Student Mentoring Scheme<\/strong>; more than 60 student mentors from stages 2 and 3 took up leadership positions and supported stage 1 students<\/li>\n<li>Designing and delivering a <strong>new law study skills module<\/strong> specifically resourced to give a boost for 120 young people in stage 1. It was optional and it was oversubscribed &#8211; so parts of the content were made accessible to all via the <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/kls-skills-hub\/\">KLS Skills Hub<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Establishing \u2018KLS Community\u2019<\/strong>; a team of academics focused on providing a great student experience through online and on-campus activities. These are open, inclusive and relevant. The aim is to prepare students to express their opinions, act with confidence, enable their employability and build the KLS Community<\/li>\n<li><strong>Boosting the availability of academic advice<\/strong> so that all students are engaged with small group support. We now target student needs at each stage of study and timetable regular advice and support. It\u2019s still possible to arrange 1-2-1 meetings with academic advisors, but it\u2019s no longer necessary for students to request academic advice in order to access it<\/li>\n<li><strong>Making 1-2-1 support available online<\/strong> via the Law School\u2019s Skills Hub. This has increased resources and the number of students accessing skills support &#8211; particularly important given the pressures young people have been under due to the disruptions of the pandemic<\/li>\n<li><strong>A new team of academics focused on student inclusion and attainment <\/strong>to ensure we continue to make progress in decolonising our curriculum and building a stronger sense of inclusion and belonging throughout the KLS degree programme<\/li>\n<li><strong>Growing the diversity<\/strong> of the KLS leadership team &#8211; now 30% BAME academics &#8211; and listening to the needs of our diverse body of students, particularly with respect to how best the School can support their ambitions, expectations, and desires for a better world<\/li>\n<li><strong>Increasing resource<\/strong> to the ACE (Academic Coaching for Excellence) programme (which invites BAME students to be partnered with a KLS academic as their ACE coach) and explicitly targeting this support as a positive action intervention under the Equality Act 2010 to reduce the awarding gap between black and white students<\/li>\n<li>Ensuring <strong>all international students were contacted personally<\/strong> by an academic at the beginning of term; just to say hi but particularly to check in with post-travel self-isolation<\/li>\n<li>Providing <strong>support to self-isolating students<\/strong> and pivoting classes online as soon as staff become aware of a positive COVID test.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here\u2019s what KLS students have said about the School\u2019s response to the ever-changing pandemic situation:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cMany international students have been very positive about how the school has been accommodating in terms of timetable and seminars especially helping those students who were studying from their home countries in\u00a0different time zones.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cHaving the opportunity to choose\u00a0between\u00a0online and\u00a0on campus\u00a0seminars was very welcome.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cPre-recorded lectures help\u00a0more effectively with learning since we\u00a0can pause\u00a0if we wish to,\u00a0we\u00a0can make notes,\u00a0we\u00a0can repeat bits\u00a0we\u00a0didn\u2019t understand&#8230;\u00a0the delivery of lectures is clearer and better structured\u00a0now\u00a0especially when divided into smaller chunks.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cAcademic Advice seminars are\u00a0very useful in terms of the content covered but also for making\u00a0students\u00a0feel more connected to our studies and university which would otherwise be difficult to do&#8230;\u00a0helpful\u00a0that unlike previous years we\u00a0now\u00a0have three sessions\u00a0during\u00a0each\u00a0semester&#8230;\u00a0content &amp; topics covered\u00a0have been\u00a0very helpful.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p>The University acknowledges that this is a worrying time for students and has assured students that they have access to support and advise wherever they may be. If you have any concerns or queries, please check Kent\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/student\/coronavirus\/\">student\u00a0Coronavirus webpages<\/a>\u00a0or email\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:CovidSupport@kent.ac.uk\">CovidSupport@kent.ac.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<ul class=\"kent-social-links\"><li><a href='http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/safety-and-wellbeing-of-students-remains-top-priority-for-kent-law-school\/&amp;t=Safety and wellbeing of students remains top priority for Kent Law School' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-facebook' title='Share via Facebook'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=Safety and wellbeing of students remains top priority for Kent Law School%20https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/safety-and-wellbeing-of-students-remains-top-priority-for-kent-law-school\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-twitter' title='Share via Twitter'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/share?url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/safety-and-wellbeing-of-students-remains-top-priority-for-kent-law-school\/' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-google-plus' title='Share via Google Plus'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='http:\/\/linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&amp;url=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/safety-and-wellbeing-of-students-remains-top-priority-for-kent-law-school\/&amp;title=Safety and wellbeing of students remains top priority for Kent Law School' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-linkedin' title='Share via Linked In'><\/i><\/a><\/li><li><a href='mailto:content=https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/safety-and-wellbeing-of-students-remains-top-priority-for-kent-law-school\/&amp;title=Safety and wellbeing of students remains top priority for Kent Law School' target='_blank'><i class='ksocial-email' title='Share via Email'><\/i><\/a><\/li><\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As teaching begins for the new term, the safety and wellbeing of staff and students remains a top priority\u00a0for Kent Law School (KLS) in 2021. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/safety-and-wellbeing-of-students-remains-top-priority-for-kent-law-school\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38005,"featured_media":4511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[124,28766],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38005"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6010"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6041,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6010\/revisions\/6041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/law-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}