Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are entirely our own and not necessarily those of our employer or any other occupational therapist.

Wednesday 20 January 2010

New Year, New Start......


Happy New Year to all our blog followers! I know this may seem a bit late in the month but things have been a bit hectic here over the last few weeks. Christmas and New Year saw a fall of snow that hasn't been seen here for at least 20 years. Things got so bad that the university closed for a day and had to close the car parks for 3 days as the ice was treacherous. This also impacted on some student assessments and unfortunately a few exams and vivas have had to rescheduled.
You know the old saying "be careful what you wish for"? Well we certainly got a white christmas - and very pretty it was too - but a nightmare for getting back into the routine of everyday life. Some staff who live out into the wilds of beyond were snowed in for a couple of weeks overall. Thank goodness we are all technologically literate - we were able to continue working for most of that time and had access to each other through emails and skype - even through the virtual classroom for meetings etc.

Well we are back to "normal" now and into the assessment period where we are busy marking both undergraduate and post graduate students' work and making any last minute preparations to the next semester.

This new year starts with a couple of additions to the team in the form of Honorary Professors. We are pleased to confirm here that Dr Katrina Brannigan (PhD, BSc OT; Reader in Occupational Therapy University York St John) and Frank Kronenberg, (BScOT, BA(Ed), International Guest Lecturer in Occupational Therapy; Spirit of Survivors Occupational Therapists without Borders; Coordinator,WFOT Community-Based Rehabilitation Project; and Lecturer, Hogeschool Zuyd, Netherlands). have been awarded an Honorary Professorship with the university and will be engaging with us and our students on a number of exciting projects and/or events over the coming year - more details to follow - watch this space!

Heather Davidson has also worked hard to get Andy Burnham, the Cabinet Secretary of State for Health and MP for Leigh, into the university in a few weeks time to give an inspirational address to students and professionals relating to the importance of leadership within Health and Social Care referring to his own journey and experience of leadership.

Our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes are busy recruiting for the next academic year to start in September 2010. If you would like further information on undergraduate or postgraduate programmes please click on them for further information. Of course our new MSc Psycho-Oncology begins in a few weeks time also.

Sarah and I will be running another webinar about the MSc Advanced Occupational Therapy online programme - possibly in May. So if you fancy joining us in a virtual reality and discussing the programme and how it works we would love to "see" you. We will be confirming details nearer the time - again watch this space.

So, apart from the usual new year resolutions to eat healthier, get fitter etc etc I will endeavour to write more blog posts to keep you upto date with the comings and goings within the academic year.
Please feel free to let me know what you would like to see more of in terms of discussion and generation of ideas etc.
Here's to a good 2010!!