Schools – Page 2 – Vital North Partnership

A fairy tale Special Collections and Seven Stories outreach project

Fairy tales are some of our oldest stories. As they pass down from generation to generation, they are retold and reinterpreted by different artists and audiences. This continual process of reinvention inspired a project led by Newcastle University Library’s Outreach team, who collaborated with the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, Fine Art at Newcastle, Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books and Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums to encourage children from three local schools to write and illustrate their own fairy tales.

Newcastle University’s Special Collections include historic and contemporary collections of children’s literature. In the Chorley Collection, Laura Valentine’s highly illustrated Aunt Louisa’s Book of Fairy Stories and Wonder Tales, formed the inspiration for the project.

The project aimed to introduce the students to Newcastle University and develop their creative writing and artistic skills by challenging them to create their own fairy tales. 60 Year 8 pupils from Excelsior Academy, St Cuthbert’s High School and Park View School explored fairy tales through two days of workshops at Newcastle University, led by Newcastle University Library’s Outreach Team.

The first day of the project focussed on creative writing. Working with staff and students from Newcastle University’s School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, the children learnt about the history of fairy tales through a mini-lecture and took part in a creative writing workshop.

Artwork for Jane Ray's How to Catch a Mermaid, from the Seven Stories Collection. Image: Newcastle University — Artwork for Jane Ray’s How to Catch a Mermaid, from the Seven Stories Collection. Image: Newcastle University

On their second visit to the University, the children focussed on illustration, taking part in a visit to Fine Art at Newcastle, and an illustration workshop facilitated by the Hatton Gallery’s Education Officer.

Day 2 also included a fairy tale Collections handling with Seven Stories. Paula was really keen for Seven Stories to be involved in this project because ‘it gave us an opportunity to work in partnership with the Special Collections team, to share our Collection in a different environment and give children hands-on access to archival material.’ She chose to show a selection of books and original illustrations from the Seven Stories Collection ‘to show the variety of different techniques and styles that illustrators use’.

I went along to help facilitate the Seven Stories sessions, where Paula introduced the material – and then we let the children explore the Collection for themselves!

The children used white gloves to explore the Seven Stories Collection. Image: Newcastle University

For Gillian Johnson, Education Outreach Officer at Newcastle University Library, “one of the key aims of the project was to inspire the young people taking part by giving them the opportunity to engage with exciting materials and meet different people outside of the classroom. And the fantastic original artwork shown to them did just that!”

I really enjoyed talking to the young people about the Seven Stories Collection. Paula commented that “the children were clearly interested in the material and asked lots of intelligent questions – and there were lightbulb moments for the teachers, too!” Gillian said, “The children were really engaged with the Seven Stories archive handling session. They were keen to study the illustrations up close; they put gloves on to handle the material and used magnifying glasses to look in detail at the artwork.”

What did the teachers think? “Exposure to original illustrations was a great experience for my students – they were able to see that they don’t have to create the perfect product in their first attempt!”

Notebooks, draft and completed artwork for Angela Barrett's The Snow Queen from the Seven Stories Collection. Image: Newcastle University — Notebooks, draft and completed artwork for Angela Barrett’s The Snow Queen from the Seven Stories Collection. Image: Newcastle University

After the two days of workshops at Newcastle University, the children completed their fairy tale stories and illustrations back at their schools. Then, the Library combined these into a beautiful volume and presented a copy to each student at a celebration event held at the University.

Reflecting on the project, Gillian said, “We were really impressed with the high quality of the finished stories and illustrations produced by the children. The quality of the work shows that the students had really benefitted from the fantastic resources and expertise they had access to throughout the project.”

And the teachers were equally impressed! “My students are now lucky enough to call themselves published authors at the age of 12/13! They have been given exposure to so many different areas which have, and will continue, to inspire them.”

Northern Bridge and Ecologies of Knowledge

Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books is a strategic partner to the Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. In May, I joined staff from Newcastle University, Durham University and Queen’s University Belfast, as well as colleagues from Northern Bridge’s strategic partners, for Ecologies of Knowledge, a seminar held at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast.

The seminar was suggested by Sage Gateshead’s Dave Camlin. It gave us the chance to reflect on our time working together on Northern Bridge so far, and “to explore some of the tensions and opportunities inherent in collaborative approaches to the generation of new knowledge.”

Newcastle University's Professor Mike Rossington addresses the Northern Bridge Ecologies of Knowledge seminar. Image courtesy of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. — Newcastle University’s Professor Mike Rossington addresses the Northern Bridge Ecologies of Knowledge seminar. Image courtesy of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

Of course, there are tensions; when you bring together any group of academic institutions, or cultural organisations, there is competition – for students, for audiences, for funding. And although learning is at the heart of what both universities and cultural venues do, the processes through which we generate knowledge are quite different. We speak different languages. We have different drivers. Working in collaboration requires negotiating all of these factors.

Another tension which formed a focus of conversation during the day was the inequality of engagement with the arts. The Warwick Commission’s Enriching Britain, Culture, Creative and Growth Report states that “the wealthiest, better educated and least ethnically diverse 8% of the population forms the most culturally active segment of all”. How to reach those beyond that 8% is certainly a challenge.

But democratising culture and knowledge is becoming increasingly important in both the higher education and cultural sectors. The Research Excellence Framework emphasises the impact of research ‘beyond academia’; Arts Council England encourages the organisations they fund to reach more demographically diverse audiences.

Dave Camlin (Sage Gateshead) opens the seminar. Image courtesy of the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

From my experience of working on the Vital North Partnership between Newcastle University and Seven Stories, collaboration holds exciting opportunities. Partnership helps to make our activities more interesting and diverse. At the intersections between universities, cultural organisations and communities, we can draw on our collective expertise to create new kinds of shared knowledge. And with increasing pressure on arts budgets, we can pool our resources and become more efficient.

I explored the Vital North Partnership’s unique ecology at the seminar, giving a Pecha Kucha presentation:

It was also interesting to reflect on what role Northern Bridge, as a Doctoral Training Partnership, has as part of our shared ecology. I think the ways in which universities and arts organisations collaborate is changing. We are asking different questions, and having new conversations. I work at this boundary – and I’m interested to see where we’re headed next.

For more information about the Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Consortium, visit: http://www.northernbridge.ac.uk/

In search of utopia with BBC Four

What kind of utopias do children imagine? In July, Newcastle University’s Professor Richard Clay is hosting Utopia: In Search of the Dream, a new three part documentary on BBC Four – featuring Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books!

The documentary, which will begin on Tuesday 8th August at 9pm, explores the concept of utopia by looking at this from a range of different perspectives. From Thomas Moore’s sixteenth-century coining of the term, to Newcastle’s own Thomas Spence, Soviet spa towns, wikipedians, feminist theatre, Steve Reich, Minecraft, Star Trek and beyond, the series is certainly wide-ranging.

Richard Clay, Professor of Digital Humanities in Newcastle University’s Faculty of Humanieis, Arts and Social Sciences, explains how the opportunity to curate Utopia came about: “I’ve done a couple of BBC4 documentaries in the past (The French Revolution: Tearing up History and A Brief History of Graffiti) and a production company approached me and said they’d been commissioned to make some films about utopia for the BBC with me writing and presenting. At first I thought it’s just too big a topic, spanning historical periods and cultures. But I concluded that it’d be a fascinating subject to explore and an amazing experience to film – which it was, especially the time we spent with young people at Seven Stories. Their vision and principles made me wonder whether Jean-Jacque Rousseau was right back in the eighteenth century – we’re born utopian and then corrupted by society…”

He invited Matthew Grenby, Professor of 18^th-Century Studies in Newcastle University’s School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics to participate in the documentary. Professor Grenby’s research interests lie in children’s literature and culture in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Professor Grenby led a workshop at Seven Stories with a group of Year 5 children from West Jesmond Primary School to explore how both historical and contemporary children’s books influence children’s visions of alternative worlds. Using the concept of utopia as a starting point, the children created drawings and talked about the other worlds they conceived of.

Drawings by children from West Jesmond Primary School. Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children's Books — Drawings by children from West Jesmond Primary School. Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books

Professor Grenby said: “Seven Stories was the perfect venue for filming, being itself a sort of utopian vision of what a child-friendly museum of children’s books can be.

The children from West Jesmond Primary School were fantastic. We asked them to draw pictures of their own personal utopias. The results were really wonderful. Waterworlds, worlds floating in the air, a city situated on a gigantic flower, with different zones for different grades of celebrities. When we asked the children what the rules would be in their utopian societies, there was a definite air of radicalism. One girl said that cars would be against the law. Another said there’d be no kings or queens! One of the boys said that everyone would have to do at least half an hour’s sport every day.

But not all of these fantasy worlds were happy places. In one girl’s vision of the future, all the people were sad because they had to live in the sea, and all the fish were unhappy because they had to live on the land. It was a remarkable insight into how utopian thinking gives a really direct insight into people’s most pressing concerns in the now.”

Filming takes place for Utopia: In Search of the Dream at Seven Stories. Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children's Books — Filming takes place for Utopia: In Search of the Dream at Seven Stories. Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books

John Beattie, Business Development Manager at Seven Stories, worked with Professor Grenby and the production company, Clear Story, to set up and support the filming. John said:

“Dystopias are a trend in contemporary children’s literature – with titles like The Hunger Games and Divergent dominating bestseller lists – so it was really interesting to watch the young people discussing utopias with Professor Grenby. Books can help children to identify with and shape the world around them, and exploring utopian worlds provides positive models for children to explore how society might develop in the future.”

And I’ll leave it to Professor Richard Clay to have the last word: “the whole crew loved filming at Seven Stories. So big thanks to your team, that great school, and those fab youngsters. The sequences we shot look wonderful!”

I’m looking forward to watching the documentary, and if you miss it tonight, then make sure you catch it on BBC iPlayer!

A Wombling Career Development Module at Seven Stories

Newcastle University’s Career Development Module enables stage two or final year students on selected degree programmes to complete a 20 credit module by undertaking a volunteering placement. This academic year, Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books have got involved in this module for the first time. Today I’m welcoming Charlie Shovlar to the Vital North Partnership blog to tell us all about her experience…

We like the Wombles because... Image: Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children's Books — We like the Wombles because… Image: Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books

Hi Charlie! Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hello! I’m Charlie, a stage 3 Combined Honours student at Newcastle University; my subjects are Media, Communication and Cultural Studies and Philosophy.

What attracted you to do a Career Development Module with Seven Stories?

I’d previously been to the Visitor Centre in Ouseburn and loved it – the atmosphere, the exhibitions, everything. So when it came to choosing my placement, I was excited to see that Seven Stories was offering not one but three different options! Marketing, Environment, and Collections. I realised the Collections placement sounded best suited to me.

What are the benefits of doing a Career Development Module over a standard taught 20 credit module?

As I’m in my final year, this was my last chance to do a Career Development Module. I didn’t have any workplace experience, so throwing myself into a placement seemed like a good thing to do to help me gain important skills, especially as it would count for module credits at the same time.

So what have you been doing on your volunteering placement at Seven Stories?

During initial discussions about the placement with my supervisors, it came up that they had the Elisabeth Beresford collection, which was in need of sorting out! I have fond memories of The Wombles from when I was little, so I was very happy when they suggested my main task could be to organise the collection. I’ve come across some lovely illustrations, still images from the Wombling Free film, and countless adorable stories.

Great Uncle Bulgaria illustration, from The Wombles Annual 1980. Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children's Books — Great Uncle Bulgaria illustration, from The Wombles Annual 1980. Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books

Towards the end of my placement I had the opportunity to spend some time at the Visitor Centre shadowing a Storycatcher and getting involved in a workshop with a school group, which was really fun. I also helped to review children’s books for the Hooks into Books scheme, which involves compiling packs of books that people across the Seven Stories team have read and reviewed, and sending them to primary schools.

What skills are you developing as part of your volunteering placement?

There has been opportunity to develop so many skills, new and existing. Aside from the Graduate Skills Framework that I need to keep track of for the module assessments, I noticed my work ethic improving a great deal – when I do work at home for other modules I get distracted all the time, but in the Seven Stories office the only distraction is the manuscripts I’m sorting through.

Also my planning and organisational skills have come on miles, as I have to make detailed notes each week so that I know where to begin next time. If I hadn’t written down where a particular few pieces of paper were, they could have been lost forever!

Still from The Wombles film. Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children's Books — Still from The Wombles film. Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books

How will the Career Development Module impact on your future studies, research or career plans?

The module has required me to take a good look at my skills to consider what sort of career is best suited to my strengths. I’m never going to be amazing at communicating, but the work I’ve done at my placement has made me feel that I’m capable of more than I thought.

A personal skills audit that we did in one of the module seminars revealed that by far my main strength is personal enterprise – that means problem-spotting, coming up with creative solutions, and embracing new perspectives. Hopefully I can bring this to wherever I end up after I graduate.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

Just that I’ve massively enjoyed my time at Seven Stories, thank you for the experience and I’m going to miss the team.

Go Wombles!

Thanks Charlie! If you’re interested in undertaking a Career Development Module in 2017/18, have a look at Seven Stories’ Collections and Exhibitions placements and apply now.

What is freedom? Community Curriculum Making, Seven Stories and Mountfield Primary School

As Newcastle University’s Research Centre for Learning and Teaching publish their Schools’ and Partners’ Guide to Community Curriculum Making Through Enquiry and Project Based Learning, this post investigates a recent example of this research in practice. Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books worked on an archive-based project in partnership with Mountfield Primary School in Newcastle using a drama and arts approach which explored the question: ‘What is freedom?’

Professor David Leat and Ulrike Thomas describe enquiry and project based learning as an approach which “encourages schools to use the resources for education that exist in their community and locality.” Engaging with the community “takes students to new places, allows them to meet new people… this gives them raw material from which to construct more positive identities, overcome stereotypes and prejudices and inform their aspirations.”

This research aligns with Seven Stories’ approach to creative learning and engagement and their objective ‘to explore how to empower children to better shape their own worlds’. It also has synergies with the ‘immersive curriculum’ that Mountfield Primary School are embedding. Seven Stories introduced partners at Mountfield to the Centre for Learning and Teaching’s work on Community Curriculum Making, and together they embarked on a new project exploring this framework.

What is freedom? Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children's Books, photography by Richard Kenworthy — What is freedom? Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books, photography by Richard Kenworthy

The starting point for the project was an essential question that the children would explore: ‘What is freedom?’. The project built on Seven Stories’ programme of engagement around the Beverley Naidoo collection, and framed the children as ‘researchers in their own journey’.

The Year 6 class spent their first school term studying Beverley Naidoo’s book, Journey to Jo’burg, which has been in print for 30 years and is represented within the Seven Stories Collection. The book was released during Apartheid and banned by the South African Government. It tells the story of black South African siblings, who risk an illegal, 250km journey to find their mother, a servant in a white household in Johannesburg, because their baby sister is gravely ill.

The students, led by Seven Stories’ Learning & Participation Manager Debbie Beeks, explored the themes of the book through drama and writing, examined related items from our archive and enjoyed an opportunity to Skype with author Beverley.

Seven Stories Learning and Participation Manager Debbie Beeks. Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books, photography by Richard Kenworthy

The children made mining heritage connections between the North East’s coalmining tradition and the goldmines of South Africa that feature in the story. They met Dave Temple, an ex-miner who led the South African miners’ solidarity campaign with the National Union of Mineworkers. This helped them to make connections between the local and global communities.

The project culminated in the Year 6 children inviting Year 5 and Professor David Leat to visit their pop-up ‘Museum of Freedom’ in Seven Stories’ Attic, which they curated themselves. The objects that they displayed in the Museum of Freedom were created using Seven Stories’ Artefictions approach, which sees the creation of artefacts from fiction, to tell the story in exhibition-form.

Seven Stories' Collections and Exhibitions Assistant, Danielle McAloon, shows the children items from the Beverley Naidoo Collection. Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children's Books, photography by Richard Kenworthy — Seven Stories’ Collections and Exhibitions Assistant, Danielle McAloon, shows the children items from the Beverley Naidoo Collection. Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books, photography by Richard Kenworthy

“Interesting. It made me want to learn more.” Year 6 student, Mountfield Primary School

“I feel proud, back then I wasn’t that ‘into it’. Reading Journey to Jo’burg got me into our project.” Year 6 student, Mountfield Primary School

“The Naidoo archive offers such rich and powerful source material for children to explore literary heritage and world history. It’s vital that Seven Stories is able to open up the archive for children to make sense of the world and have ownership of their future narratives. It was a privilege to be part of this project and to research and learn alongside year 5 students and their class teacher at Mountfield.” Debbie Beeks, Seven Stories

Mountfield Primary School children with their Museum of Freedom. Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children's Books, photography by Richard Kenworthy — Mountfield Primary School children with their Museum of Freedom. Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books, photography by Richard Kenworthy

In evaluating the approach and impact of this project, Debbie Beeks and Gary Robson (Year 6 Teacher at Mountfield Primary School) found that the Arts Council England Quality Principles and Newcastle University’s Community Curriculum Making research had complementary characteristics. These gave them a common language and frameworks to explore the rich artistic opportunities that the collaboration presented. The children were able to navigate literature and the arts, from the local to the global, through their own learning journey.

“From talking to and watching the students I am certain that many of them will remember this project into their adult life. This is a brilliant illustration of how ‘going places, like Seven Stories, meeting people like Dave and Debbie, and doing and making things, like the pop up museum’ takes the curriculum onto a another level of meaning.” Professor David Leat, Newcastle University

The Schools’ and Partners’ Guide to Community Curriculum Making through Enquiry and Project Based Learning guide was supported by ESRC Impact Acceleration funding. With thanks to Laura Barrett and Debbie Beeks at Seven Stories, and Professor David Leat and Ulrike Thomas at Newcastle University, for their help with writing this blog post.

First year work shadowing at Seven Stories

The graduate job market is competitive. Alongside academic performance, employers are looking for students with relevant work experience. Demonstrating your employability is key, and it’s never too early to start – which is why Newcastle University’s Careers Service offers a work shadowing programme for first year students.

As part of the 2016/17 programme, Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books welcomed three first year students to their Visitor Centre to shadow our Learning and Participation and Front of House teams for a day over the Easter vacation. I talked to the students about what they got out of the experience…

Hello Akiba, Hannah and Katy! Tell me about your first impressions of Seven Stories.

Akiba: It’s even more exciting than I anticipated!

Hannah: And so colourful!

Tell me about your studies.

Hannah: We all study English Literature at Newcastle University, so we sort of knew each other before we came to shadow at Seven Stories. We’re all in our first year – so far, I love it!

Hannah in the Michael Morpurgo exhibition. Image taken by Katy.

How did you find out about the First Year Work Shadowing programme and secure this placement at Seven Stories?

Katy: I met Rachel at the Seven Stories stand at the Creative Careers event on 1st March and signed up for more information about placements. Then, Rachel contacted me with about the First Year Work Shadowing opportunity, and I emailed her with my CV and a couple of paragraphs on why I was interested in the placement.

What attracted you to undertake a work shadowing placement at Seven Stories?

Hannah: I visited Seven Stories as a child – so I wanted to see what careers here were like as an adult!

Akiba: I’m interested in going into a career in publishing, and Seven Stories encourages children to explore the world of books, so I was attracted to explore careers related to the publishing industry.

Katy and the unicorn in the Michael Morpurgo: A Lifetime in Stories gallery. Image taken by Akiba.

So what have you been up to during your work shadowing placement?

Katy: I sat in on Beth’s school session with the Reception class in the Studio. First we had a workshop, which the kids loved – and it was really interesting to see how Beth changed the activity every ten minutes or so to keep the children engaged. She gave every child the chance to participate and she knew how to get everyone’s attention when she wanted the class to listen.

Hannah: It was really interesting to watch how the teachers interacted with the Storycatchers, too. Today we’ve seen careers at Seven Stories and careers in teaching.

Akiba: We went to watch a storytime with Cathy, and I loved the performance aspect! I don’t think I could do it though. We also spent time in the exhibitions, reading books in the bookshop and talking to the Front of House team.

Akiba in the Michael Morpurgo exhibition. Image taken by Katy.

What have you learned from today, and what impact will your work shadowing placement have on your studies at Newcastle University?

Hannah: We’ve recently been having some lectures on children’s literature by Professor Kim Reynolds, and there’s more to children’s books than you might think. Today’s visit has definitely reinforced that: children’s books are about children’s first steps into reading and they play a really important role in language development.

Katy: Reading the books in the bookshop also made me think that children’s books can represent serious and dark themes – Pandora by Victoria Turnbull was heartbreaking. And images can be just as important as the words in children’s books.

Any final comments?

Akiba: I truly appreciated the kindness of the Seven Stories team for being so warming, making me feel comfortable and answering on any questions that I had. Thank you!

The Vital North Partnership Pecha Kucha

New year, new blog post. And for my first post of 2017, I thought I’d bring you something a little different – a video! Here it is:

The Vital North Partnership (+19 other ways Newcastle University and Seven Stories are collaborating)

In 2016, I presented this Pecha Kucha about the Vital North Partnership between Newcastle University and Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books at two events; the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Common Ground event in June, and Newcastle University’s Working Together: Bringing About Change event in November. Both events explored collaborations and engagement in the humanities.

Pecha Kuchas are short, visual presentations. As you talk, you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. Your slides change automatically. And they’re more than a little tricky to deliver…

The Vital North Partnership (+ 19 other ways Newcastle University and Seven Stories are collaborating) is exactly what the title suggests: a presentation about 20 current Partnership projects. And what are those projects? Well, watch the video and find out!

With thanks to Jeff Wilson from the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, who produced this video.

Seven Stories Research Scholarship: Q&A

Earlier this year, a Speech and Language Sciences student, Zoe, spent 8 weeks with Seven Stories’ Learning and Participation Team working on a Newcastle University Research Scholarship.

In November, Seven Stories’ Business Development Manager John Beattie and I caught up with Zoe at Newcastle University’s Research Scholarship celebration event, where she presented a poster about her work with Seven Stories.

Hello Zoe! You undertook a Newcastle University Research Scholarship with Seven Stories. What’s that, and how did you secure it?

A vacation Research Scholarship is offered to students in their middle or penultimate year of their degree from Schools across the University. Back in January 2016, we were notified of this opportunity to conduct some research and receive a bursary. My supervisor Professor James Law notified me that Seven Stories would like some research to be conducted in collaboration with them. I organised a meeting at Seven Stories where I met members of the Learning and Participation Team. We decided on a topic and wrote a proposal that was handed in February 2016. In March I found the proposal was successful and began the scholarship in June 2016.

What did you do during your Research Scholarship with Seven Stories?

We decided to do a study about Hooks into Books at Seven Stories and sent Snow Dogs book packs into two schools to evaluate how they were received, and if anything could be improved. This involved doing a literature review surrounding reading for pleasure and its implications. After packs were delivered I then attended each school, carried out questionnaires and observed a session. This was great, seeing the school staff and children’s reactions to the books.

Zoe's research poster: How do children engage in reading for pleasure? — Zoe’s research poster: How do children engage in reading for pleasure?

What were your research findings?

Children’s reading habits did not differ between the schools (regardless of pupil premium percentage).

Teachers and Schools have different definitions therefore different approaches to reading for pleasure. School A: ‘Enjoying stories for the sake of it and being able to be comfortable laying down in a nice environment.’ School B: ‘Having enough knowledge and understanding to be able to read for fluency.’

Schools took different approaches to reading the story (one read all one read half). They also had different ways of choosing the story (one asked colleagues, one looked at illustrations). The activities they did using the books were also different: one was purely creative and artistic whereas the other followed more closely the curriculum with creative writing and pictures.

How did you find working in a cultural education setting like Seven Stories, in comparison to a speech therapy role?

I really enjoyed working with Seven Stories and felt very supported throughout my time there.

It was enjoyable working in the office, then experiencing the hustle and bustle of schools. In comparison, as a speech therapy student every day and placement can be different, from hospitals, to children’s centres, to community clinics and schools.

Newcastle University's Research Scholarship celebration event in November 2016. Image: Newcastle University — Newcastle University’s Research Scholarship celebration event in November 2016. Image: Newcastle University

What have you learnt from your Research Scholarship?

I have learnt lots of research skills from my project, particularly how to form child-friendly questionnaires and write literature reviews. I have also learnt how to format and design posters.

What impact will your Research Scholarship and time with Seven Stories have on your future studies, research and career plans?

I hope to incorporate my experience into speech therapy in the future, particularly the links between ‘reading for pleasure’ and speech and language difficulties. The formatting skills I learnt will help me in the future to make assessed posters whilst still at university, but also in the future when making information sheets for colleagues of clients.

Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

I would encourage anyone to take up the opportunity of a summer vacation Research Scholarship. It was a valuable experience which will definitely have benefits for my future.