Student employability – Page 2 – Vital North Partnership

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.

Seven Stories showcases new student artwork for The Late Shows 2017

In May, cultural venues across Newcastle Gateshead participate in The Late Shows, part of the Museums at Night initiative. For this year’s Late Shows, Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books presented new artworks by students from Newcastle University’s MA in Creative Arts Practice, a postgraduate programme which focusses on creativity, interdisciplinary projects and digital technologies.

The MA in Creative Arts Practice programme director, Dr Tom Schofield, suggested the collaboration as part of an existing module around Enterprise and Research Methods. Dr Schofield said: “In our programme, we think about professional practice in terms of the way that our work makes sense in public. What does it mean to work with others? What do you need to make your work work in this environment?” This fitted with Seven Stories’ commitment to supporting emerging arts professionals, and presenting art and engaging audiences are core activities for the organisation.

Following a successful application for Teaching Development Funding from the University, module leaders Dr Schofield, Tim Shaw and Professor John Bowers, the Seven Stories team and I discussed a programme of activities that would lead to the MA in Creative Arts Practice students presenting a new artwork for The Late Shows 2017, when Seven Stories offers free entry late into the evening and attracts a large and diverse audience. The starting point was collaborating to come up with a suitable commission brief for the students to respond to.

MA in Creative Arts Practice students at Seven Stories for a site visit. Image: Newcastle University

In March, the MA in Creative Arts Practice students came on a site visit to Seven Stories, where Seven Stories’ staff explained the commission brief, talked about our experience of The Late Shows, and the students had the opportunity to explore the different spaces at Seven Stories. They even took part in a story time!

The students had around a month to respond to the brief with a costed artistic proposal. All the proposals submitted showed creativity, and the students had clearly thought about Seven Stories as an organisation, and what might be suitable for our spaces and audiences.

Will Finn and Rosie Calvert perform at Seven Stories.

Seven Stories chose to commission two of the students, Lewis Brown and Mike Hirst, to deliver new works. We worked closely with the students as they planned their Late Shows activity over the weeks leading up to Friday 19th May, so that all of the partners were fully prepared.

Lewis curated a series of pop-up musical and poetry performances around Seven Stories, which responded to the building’s spaces and themes. Lewis said: “With Seven Stories’ support, I was able to facilitate a diverse programme of local performers popping up throughout the venue for guests to discover. Working with Seven Stories has been a pleasure and a great opportunity to apply my creative practice on a larger scale than I ever had previously!”

Dr Schofield observed that “audiences formed naturally around the events and they gelled nicely with the spaces… the performers referenced parts of the exhibition around them, using props and standing in different places, which contributed significantly to the integrated feel of the performances.” From Seven Stories’ perspective, Lewis’ programme really brought the bookshop, café and galleries to life. Operations Manager Jayne Nicholson said: “It was all very well planned – the whole building was buzzing!”

Mike presented an interactive artwork in Seven Stories’ Studio space, inspired by early children’s books. Over the course of the evening, he pulled together social media posts about Seven Stories and The Late Shows to create new chapbooks, which he printed and constructed with visitors. For Mike, taking part in The Late Shows “allowed me to fuse contemporary experience with archive content to create new and exciting possibilities.”

Mike’s artwork was complemented by a display of historic chapbooks from Seven Stories’ Collection, led by Collections Officer, Paula Wride. Paula said: “Having the old and new chapbooks together really worked well – and it was the first time we’ve really explored chapbooks at Seven Stories.” Dr Schofield echoes that sentiment: “Mike’s work felt like a very natural complement to the Studio activities. The work took on a recursive aspect as people started to tweet pictures and descriptions of the chapbooks themselves which were then reincluded!”

Mike engages with Seven Stories' Late Shows visitors. — Mike with Professor John Bowers and Seven Stories Chief Executive Kate Edwards.

From the perspective of the MA in Creative Arts Practice, this filled the programme’s objectives by encouraging the students to respond to the challenges of a space and event format. Dr Schofield said: “I thought they stage managed the evening extremely competently and really added to the event at Seven Stories. It was a great success.”

Over 800 people visited over the course of the evening and Seven Stories were very happy with how the event went. Chief Executive Kate Edwards said: “What a fab time we had at The Late Shows! Loads of happy visitors, a great atmosphere and something going on everywhere you looked. The MA in Creative Arts Practice students were great!”

Lewis Brown performs in the Michael Morpurgo gallery at Seven Stories for The Late Shows 2017. — Lewis performs in the Michael Morpurgo gallery at Seven Stories for The Late Shows 2017.

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!

Music students deliver enterprising event at Seven Stories

In March 2017, a group of third year students on Newcastle University’s third year Music Enterprise module delivered a Musical Creepy Crawlies event at Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books. Here’s the full story…

With rhythm and rhyme being a key feature of picturebooks, there’s an interesting synergy between children’s books and music. So it seemed only natural to me to explore collaborations between Seven Stories and Music at Newcastle University. Meeting with Jane Nolan, Teaching Fellow in Enterprise in the School of Arts and Cultures, her Music Enterprise third year module sounded like a perfect way to start working with Music. Jane says: ‘In music and the creative industries, students need to prepare for self-managed, freelance and portfolio careers as well as for employment, and the Music Enterprise module helps students do this through the challenging and authentic experience of creating, organising and delivering a musical event, working in small teams.’

All ready for the percussion workshop. Image: Newcastle University

After discussing the opportunity with Seven Stories’ Programming team, I delivered a short presentation to the Music Enterprise cohort back in October to tell them a bit more about Seven Stories, the sort of event we would be interested in, and the spaces available. And I was really pleased when a group approached me a couple of weeks later!

Amy, Lucy, Aimee-Beth and Gina were interested in hosting their event at Seven Stories because ‘we knew that they would be really supportive of our event’ (Lucy), ‘it allowed for our event to be different from typical gig nights’ (Amy) and ‘the rooms were perfect for the workshops and the final performance’ (Gina) that the group were planning.

The group came to Seven Stories to pitch their event to us before Christmas. They proposed running vocal and percussion workshops on the theme of bugs and insects. Aimee-Beth says: ‘Creepy crawlies tied in with Seven Stories’ insect theme for spring.’ Lucy adds: ‘It also meant we had a really good choice of children’s books to work with.’ It sounded really interesting, so Seven Stories gave them approval to go ahead…

The students used picturebooks as the inspiration for their workshops. Image: Newcastle University

Following that meeting, the group developed their workshops, planned logistics for the event and organised communications to promote Musical Creepy Crawlies. Jane says of this process: ‘Students’ reflections and feedback confirm that the experience of organising and presenting a musical event during the module enhances skills and confidence, personal resilience and professional development, and can also add to their CVs.’

On Sunday 5th March 2017, Amy, Lucy, Aimee-Beth and Gina delivered their event. Amy says: ‘I felt like overall the event ran well, even though I was a bit nervous on the day. But we had great support from Seven Stories which was a massive help.’

Preparing for the Musical Creepy Crawlies vocal workshop. Image: Newcastle University

What did participants think? ‘From the parents’ feedback, it seemed like everyone who attended really enjoyed it,’ says Aimee-Beth. And the parents themselves told us that ‘it was very good for all young children – ours is 6 is and it was good for her age range – but little ones were enjoying it too!’ Another parent commented: ‘thank you – my son loves creepy crawlies so good topic!’

And what did the students learn from the experience? Gina and Aimee-Beth reflected on having to ‘make on the spot decisions’ as the event progressed; ‘no amount of organisation / preparation can leave you totally equipped for things.’ And Lucy and Amy both commented on ‘the importance of communication – I think this is one of of the most vital components of running a successful event and working in a team.’

The children deliver their final Musical Creepy Crawlies performance. Image: Newcastle University

Lorna Duncanson, Seven Stories’ Programming Co-ordinator, said: ‘It was lovely to have such fun and accessible musical workshops at Seven Stories!’ And from Jane’s perspective, ‘the Musical Creepy Crawlies team put a huge amount of thought, imagination and hard work into their workshop, which was clearly very much enjoyed by the children and well received by the parents. Congratulations to the team on a great event!’

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.

Q&A with Seven Stories’ Santander University Intern

This summer, Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books has hosted a Santander University SME Internship. This Santander programme works with Newcastle University’s Careers Service and other universities around the UK to fund student and graduate internships with small to medium-sized enterprises.

I asked our Santander University Intern, Hannah, to tell us more about her time at Seven Stories.

Hi Hannah! Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hi, I’m Hannah, I study English Literature with Creative Writing at Newcastle University. I’m going into my third (and final!) year.

Why did you approach Seven Stories about undertaking a placement?

I have visited Seven Stories many times and I am particularly passionate about children’s literature. I wanted to see how it works from behind the scenes, to get some experience and to see what it would be like to work there.

How did you secure the Santander University Internship?

I emailed Seven Stories to see whether I could do a few weeks’ work experience there. I was ecstatic when they said yes! A few weeks later I found out that I could do it as a Santander University Internship and be paid for it!

So what have you been up to during your internship at Seven Stories?

I started off with two weeks at the Visitor Centre. I spent a lot of time in the Studio helping children make kites, finger puppets, masks and paper boats! I got to chat with children and their families about their favourite books and characters, it was so much fun to get excited about Roald Dahl and J.K Rowling with them.

When things were quieter I surveyed people about their experience of Seven Stories and helped to tidy up the galleries. I got to help out with the Storycatchers’ activities too, including the Daydreamer performance, Little Gallery Explorers and Sensory Stories. It was great seeing how Seven Stories aims to give the best experience to all of their visitors and that they genuinely care about being an inclusive organisation.

The highlight of my time at the Visitor Centre was getting to be Mog the Forgetful Cat! It was hilarious trying to climb into the suit, and seeing the children so excited to meet the ‘real’ Mog was so entertaining. It’s an experience I’ll never forget!

Hannah as Mog! Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books

I also had the fantastic opportunity to spend two weeks in the Seven Stories archives with the Collection team. On my first day there I let it slip that Michael Morpugo is one of my favourite authors. Next thing I knew I had been given a box of his letters to sort through!

There were letters from Philip Pullman, Anne Fine, Philippa Pearce and all sorts of other famous and exciting people. It was fascinating to learn more about Morpurgo as a person and I was inspired by the way he has used his influence as a popular children’s writer to actually make a difference in children’s lives, both through campaigning and through the charity ‘Farms for City Children’.

What have you learnt from your Santander University Internship?

I’ve learnt how a museum or organisation such as Seven Stories actually works. I hadn’t considered before that there were so many different tasks involved in the running of the museum, and thus so many varied career opportunities.

It also taught me that I really thrive off working with people. I absolutely loved exploring the archives and the things I got to look at blew me away, but I did miss the interaction with the families that I had at the Visitor Centre.

I also learnt that I’m not as bad at origami as I thought!

What impact will your Seven Stories placement have on your studies at Newcastle University?

My time at Seven Stories has helped reawaken the magic of books for me. Sometimes when you’re studying literature you forget what an incredible experience reading is, it sometimes gets lost in all the analysis.

Spending time listening to children chat about their favourite books has also helped me better understand what children want to read. As I study Creative Writing, I’m hoping to write a children’s fantasy story for my dissertation. I have been thinking a lot about the lack of protagonists in this genre with a disability and this is something I wish to examine through the story and the essay that accompanies it.

I have now seen the immense wealth of unique material that the archive offers for research purposes, and can see how examining items from the Collection would bring a new dimension to my writing.

Do you think we should offer a Santander University Internship again in the future?

Definitely! The Internship itself was absolutely incredible and the financial support from Santander made it possible for me to do a longer placement. I have learnt so much and had an amazing time, so I’d definitely recommend it being offered again!

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

Just thank you so much for this opportunity; I can’t describe just how brilliant it’s been.

A first year and a first blog post

We’re now officially one year into our funding for the Vital North Partnership between Seven Stories: The National Centre for Children’s Books and Newcastle University. I thought this blog would be a good way to review what’s gone on over the past year…

The Vital North Partnership begins

The start of 2015 saw Newcastle University’s REF Impact Case Study about the Children’s Literature Unit’s work with Seven Stories receive a 4* grading, leading to the School of English ranking first in the UK for research impact.

This was fantastic recognition of our collaboration over the last 10 years, and led Seven Stories (with Newcastle University’s support) to make a Museum Resilience Fund bid to Arts Council England. This was for the Vital North Partnership, a project with the following aims:

To strengthen and scale-up Seven Stories’ partnership with Newcastle University
To build Seven Stories’ brand recognition and reach and develop new income streams
To secure a sustainable business model for Seven Stories as the national home for children’s books

We were delighted to be awarded funding, and the Vital North Partnership began…

From 2015 to 2016

It’s been a busy first year. Here are some of the highlights!

We were granted funding from AHRC and Innovate UK for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between the School of English Literature, Language and Lingusitics and Seven Stories’ Collections and Exhibitions team.
We recruited a Vital North Partnership Manager (me!) to facilitate the project. I started in post in January 2016.
Seven Stories’ exclusive Michael Morpurgo: A Lifetime in Stories exhibition opened, supported by the KTP. The Vital North Partnership also supported a sell-out Christmas concert with Michael at St. Nicholas’ Cathedral, On Angel Wings.
We offered 4 joint public talks on children’s literature with expert Brian Alderson, and author Garth Nix.
Seven Stories’ Living Books project is ongoing: this is a development programme for early years settings and parents to share and enjoy books with young children. Newcastle University’s Centre for Learning and Teaching are helping to evaluate this project.

Living Books workshop — Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books

The Collections team at Seven Stories have been supporting Professor Kim Reynolds’ research into Olive Dehn and Catherine Storr
We also collaborated around Professor David Leat’s Community Curriculum Making research: Seven Stories’ Learning and Participation team have attended meetings and events and contributed case studies.

Journey to Jo'burg performance — Image: Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books

Seven Stories and Newcastle University hosted Leverhulme Visiting Professor Karen Sands O’Connor from Buffalo State University. Karen spent her time here looking at race and diversity in the Seven Stories collection.
We jointly offered four David Almond Fellowships to support postgraduates and early career researchers to come and consult the Seven Stories collection.
Newcastle University students from the BA in English Literature and BA in Education visited Seven Stories as part of their course, and I gave a seminar on Seven Stories and reading for pleasure for the Educational Psychology doctoral trainees
Seven Stories have also been supporting student employability by offering placements: we’ve supported an undergraduate Research Scholarship with Speech and Language Sciences and we’re currently hosting a Santander University Internship.

Phew!

What’s next?

Now I’ve been in post for 8 months, things are really gathering pace. There are lots of projects in the pipeline and I’m planning to share activities as they happen via this blog. If you’d like more information about anything you’ve read about here, get in touch!

Between now and Christmas, I’ll be posting about opportunities through the Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Partnership, sharing a Pecha Kucha I gave at the AHRC Common Ground event earlier in the summer about the Vital North Partnership and quizzing Research Associate Dr. Jessica Medhurst about all things KTP.

So a first year, and a first blog post. I’m looking forward to seeing what the next year has in store…