Good news! To welcome you back to campus, the Kent Sport Physiotherapy Clinic is offering a discount on massages for a limited time only, so it’s best to book in early! From 12 October to 30 November 2020, you can enjoy a 30 minute massage for £22 to help you get rid of those nagging aches and pains. This offer is available to all staff, students and public –  regardless of whether you have a Kent Sport membership or not.

To book an appointment, email physio@kent.ac.uk and we will be able to provide you with all the instructions. You can also call us on 01227 824375.

The safety of our clients and staff is of the highest priority. We have implemented several safety procedures to ensure that we can still offer massages in a Covid-secure environment. Full information and FAQs on our response to Coronavirus can be found on the Kent Sport webpage.

Our official Employee Assistance Programme provider, Care first offers a numbers of services and provide useful advice and support, including weekly webinars.

This week’s (Monday 12 October – Friday 16 October) webinars are as follows:

Monday 12 October 2020 –  ‘How Care first can support you & an update on our services’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link.

Tuesday 13 October 2020 – ‘Budgeting with Care first’
Time: 12.00-13.00 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Wednesday 14 October 2020 –  ‘Supporting loved ones who are isolated’
Time: 14.00-15.00 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Thursday 15 October 2020 – ‘Understanding and supporting a Covid-19 recovery’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

Friday 16 October 2020 – ‘Menopause Awareness’
Time: 12.00-12.30 – to register please click on this Go to webinar link

We know many of you will have missed playing tennis over the last year, particularly with the current situation limiting options for staying active. That’s why we are absolutely delighted to announce that the brand-new Indoor Tennis and Events Arena will be open for bookings from Monday 12 October! This enhanced facility provides the University of Kent with four high-quality indoor acrylic tennis and netball* courts, easier facility access and will provide an exceptional conference and events space in the future.

Tennis is open to book for all members – simply login to your online account and book ‘tennis’ under ‘Activity’. You don’t have to be a tennis pro or even know all the rules, our courts are open for everyone to enjoy. And with social distancing measures in place, we are Covid-secure. Booking for all Kent Sport sessions, including tennis, is essential and can be done on the Kent Sport Horizons webpage .

For more information on booking and procedures for this new facility, see our Indoor Tennis and Events Arena news item.

We’re really excited to be able to offer indoor tennis again, and we hope to see you all very soon.

*Netball courts will be available at a later date. Details to be announced.

For Kent Sport facility updates and developments, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter or visit our website

NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Kent, Surrey and Sussex (ARC KSS) will be holding a series of webinars during October and November to engage stakeholders on its first year achievements and discuss future plans.

The five webinars will include presentations from four ARC KSS themes (social care, dementia and healthy ageing, starting well children and young people’s mental health and primary and community care) in conjunction with ARC KSS’s four cross-cutting themes (health and social care economics, public health, digital and co-production) to showcase the impact ARC KSS is making in meeting local needs, engaging the public, and improving research capacity.

The ARC KSS Academy team will also be holding a separate event to discuss their plans to support researchers across health and social care applied research through learning, development and mentorship opportunities.

ARC KSS brings together NHS Trusts, local authorities, universities, KSS AHSN, communities and other partners to support applied research to improve health and social care for patients and families in Kent, Surrey and Sussex.

The collaboration, hosted by Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and led by ARC KSS Director, Professor Stephen Peckham, is designed to ensure the learning from research is implemented more rapidly and systematically to improve the health care of patients and the public.

Full details on all of the events, including how to sign up, can be found on ARC KSS’s Eventbrite page 

Everybody has their own level of mental health, the same as their own level of physical health.  A person’s mental and physical health interact closely and are strongly connected.  Poor physical health will affect someone’s mental wellbeing, no matter how emotionally resilient they are.

Therefore everybody needs to have a good understanding of how to maintain good mental health and how to interact with people who may be struggling with mental health issues.  Saturday, 10 October is World Mental Health Day.  All mental health charities mark the day with their own campaigns.  The Mental Health Foundation’s campaign encourages people to communicate with ‘Tea and Talk’; MIND encourages people to ‘Do One Thing for Better Mental Health’.

The University has several resources and support mechanisms in place for staff struggling with issues that are affecting their mental health.  Staff can self-refer to Occupational Health.  The University’s Employee Assistance Programme offers leaflets, telephone counselling, face to face counselling and an information line:

University of Kent – Care first – Employee Assistance Resource; Log in = uokent; Password = university

OH has been running a series of blog articles since the Covid 19 crisis began and many of these focus on mental health and the challenges of working from home and working through change.  These are accessible on the Health and Wellbeing website

Learning and Organisation Development will be running an additional Virtual Training Session on Mental Health awareness with Anna Minogue; details coming soon.

Here are 10 Top Tips for maintaining good mental health

5 General Tips

1. Connect with other People: good relationships are important as they can help build a sense of belonging and self-worth, give you an opportunity to share positive experiences and provide emotional support to others

2. Be Physically Active: Evidence shows being active can improve your mental wellbeing by raising your self-esteem, helping set goals and achieve them and can cause chemical changes in your brain which can help to positively change your mood

3. Keep Learning: Research shows that learning new skills can improve mental wellbeing by boosting self-confidence and raising self-esteem, helping build a sense of purpose and connection with others

4. Give to Others: Research suggests that acts of kindness can help create positive feelings and a sense of reward, giving you purpose and self-worth and help connect with other people. Examples are small acts of kindness towards other people, or volunteering in your local community

5. Living in the Moment: Paying more attention to the present moment can improve your mental wellbeing, including your thoughts, feelings, your body and the world around you. ‘Mindfulness’ can help you enjoy life more and understand yourself better

5 Tips for Good Mental Health at Work

1. Maintain Boundaries: Don’t let work activities creep into your personal time.  This is more important now when most of us are based working from home.  Put in boundaries of time and space for your work activities.

2. Keep in Contact: Prioritise Team meetings, in Teams, Zoom or telephone.  This is your work community and they understand the challenges of your work better than anyone else.  If you’re having a bad day, reach out to a colleague.

3. Take Breaks: ensure you maintain breaks in your home-working routine.  Breaks are especially important if your home workstation set-up is not as ergonomic as it should be.

4. Take your Holidays: 2020 is probably the weirdest work year for all of us and the lack of certainty can completely throw our sense or normality.  Working in this alternative way means it’s important we take time away from work, to rest and enjoy ourselves.

5. Reach out to your Manager: if you find yourself struggling or feel overwhelmed you can access lots of the University resources (see information above). You can also  talk to your supervisor or manager, or  consider contacting someone else in your management line or HR or OH.  The University has a Psychological Wellbeing Standard in place which contains an Individual Stress Risk Assessment Tool.

In this series of public online seminars, the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (CSHE) focuses upon technology enhanced learning. In rapidly changing times, the sudden move to more online forms of learning in HE brought on by COVID-19 have challenged us all. World leading scholars will highlight research that will help us all in our online teaching practice. The online seminars will explore learning design, learning analytics, electronic assessment and feedback and contract cheating.

CSHE are hosting five seminars – all will be held online via Microsoft Teams. You can find more details about each seminar on our website:

Designing for online learning: Practical implications from research on learning design and student self-regulated learning – Wednesday 14 October 2020 10.00 – 11.00. Professor Sue Bennett, University of Wollongong, Australia

Using Learning analytics to support learners and teachers at the Open University – Thursday 22 October 2020 13.00 – 14.00. Professor Bart Rienties Open University, UK

Online and Onboard: The impact of electronic submission, feedback and grading on the staff and student experience – Thursday 29 October 2020 13.00 – 14.00. Professor Emma Mayhew, University of Surrey, UK.

Detecting and addressing contract cheating in online assessment – Thursday 12 November 2020 10.00 – 11.00. Associate Professor Phill Dawson, Deakin University, Australia

Seminar 5 Title TBC. Thursday 26 November 2020 10.00 – 11.00. Professor Dragan Gasevic, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

The Templeman Library will be closed on Saturday 10 October while essential maintenance work is carried out. The Library will close at 21.00 on Friday 9 October and reopen at 09.00 on Sunday 11 October.

You will still be able to access the resources you need for your studies online, and alternative study spaces will be available across campus.

We will be available to help you remotely with all your library and IT queries.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by this essential work.