Coming out of lockdown with IntoUniversity Manchester North
13 Oct 2020
Working harder than ever to continue to create a safe, welcoming and fun environment for all of the students to learn, grow and thrive
Throughout lockdown, the IntoUniversity Manchester North (IUMN) team worked tirelessly to continue their engagement with their pupils.
Through phone calls, the post, and multiple online platforms, they provided both academic and pastoral support to students and their families.
As restrictions have lifted and children have gone back to school, IUMN has been able to reopen their doors and the team have been working just as hard to create a new ‘normal’ for students attending their IU centre.
In just a month of reopening, the centre have booked in delivery with all of their partner secondary schools and colleges and have already begun delivering their Secondary FOCUS Programme, face-to-face to students in Year 7-11. These workshops are designed to relate to a particular stage of students’ learning and focus on developing key skills and providing information and advice on their future options.
IUMN have also booked in face-to-face delivery with three out of their four partner primary schools and have their first Year 6 FOCUS week taking place at the beginning of November. Activities during the week include a self-guided tour of Manchester Museum, a virtual workshop delivered by the Museum and an interactive virtual workshop from a UoM PhD student studying Palaeontology.
In addition, they are also continuing with some virtual learning and engagement. As volunteers are currently unable to visit the centre, mentoring meetings are still taking place via Microsoft Teams. This is obviously a huge hit with the mentoring pairs, as IUMN have at least 11 UoM student mentors continuing with their mentee for the next academic year. Recruitment for new mentors and mentees is in the early stages, with IUMN staff attending the UoM volunteering fair in the coming weeks.
And finally, although face-to-face Academic Support has been temporarily suspended due to the schools risk assessment, Academic Support has continued virtually for both primary and secondary students. The team at IU set fun and engaging activities for primary students via the platform Seesaw, whilst the secondary students have access to ‘Future Readiness’ projects at home. The weekly phone calls to each of these students have continued, and the staff at IUMN are continuing to check-in with them and provide academic and pastoral support to both the students and their families over the phone.
Stephanie Lee, Head of Widening Participation, said: “It is clear that the staff at IUMN have continued to go above and beyond to provide vital support and advice to their students and now that the centre is back open, they are working harder than ever to continue to create a safe, welcoming and fun environment for all of the students to learn, grow and thrive.”
For more information, or to become involved in the work of IntoUniversity Manchester North, please contact: