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PALS@plymouth.ac.uk
LEARNING SUPPORT & WELLBEING
WITH PLYMOUTH UNIVERSITY BULLETIN JANUARY 2015
Happy New Year and welcome to the January
2015 edition of the LSW (Learning Support and
Wellbeing) bulletin. We offer services via our front
desk in the Roland Levinsky Building – the
Learning Gateway - on the Plymouth campus, and
online at https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/student-
life/services/learning-gateway. You can also call us
on 01752 587676. We hope the information
provided here will be of interest to staff and
students. We would also welcome comments and
suggestions. Do let me know if you would like
further details about anything covered in this
edition, and please pass the bulletin on to
colleagues for whom you think it might be useful.
John Hilsdon, Head of Learning Support and
Wellbeing.
Nursing); Luke Cole (Maths) and Michelle
Singh (Psychology).
Our PALS Graduate Intern, Zoë Foster-Smith
left us in December after a distinguished
career start which included valuable
contributions to our leader training programme
and debriefs. Zoë played a role on the PALS
national scene by organising the National
Leader Conference at Plymouth in 2013,
attending national meetings in Manchester
and shadowing a Manchester PASS
Sabbatical Intern. She completed both the
GTA and PASS Supervisor Training courses
and is a fully-fledged PALS trainer. Zoë has
made many friends during her time with PALS
– both at Plymouth and across the country.
PALS leaders in particular will miss Zoë’s
dynamism and sense of fun. Zoë - we all join
in wishing you every success at the Cognition
Institute and beyond!
PALS (Peer Assisted Learning)
Look out for the HEA Report: Mapping student-led
peer learning in the UK (Keenan), November 2014,
https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/node/10208.
Plymouth PALS contributed data to this on our
successful in-programme PALS scheme, and also
on our pilot project supporting the transition of Direct
Entrants to final year study at PU.
At the HEA Peer Led Academic Learning Network
event held in Manchester in November Plymouth
displayed three posters: PALS for Direct Entrants
(Vince); Mature Students and PALS (Vince) and also
a poster devised by the Adult Nursing PALS team:
Plymouth PALS in Action – leader feedback, student
feedback and student led developing PALS learning
resources (Abelson-Mitchell).
The prize-winning Plymouth PALS poster which
came out top at the National PASS/PALS Leader
Conference in Edinburgh recently is to go on display
from this week onwards on the second floor of the
university library, along with the winner’s trophy.
Congratulations to delegates: Chris Brake and Andy
Barnes (Computing); Ellen Lithgow (Child Health
At the National Leader Conference,
Edinburgh, November 2014

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CAPTION YOUR PHOTO HERE
studentcounselling@plymouth.ac.uk 2
“Callout an important quote or sentence
from your text here. Callout an important
quote or sentence from your text here.
Callout an important quote or sentence
from your text here.”
Student Counselling &
Personal Development
Write from the Heart
Do any of your students have an inspiring story to
tell about any of the following?
 Life and wellbeing as a mature student
 Battling your inner critic and overcoming
perfectionism
 Coping with loss and bereavement
 Anxiety and stress in the academic
environment
 Coping with mental health issues
We are looking for inspirational and uplifting
stories by students to support other students
going through similar experiences. We are asking
for 1000 -1600 words presented either in text, or
in less than five minutes of audio or film). We may
then use their story to create e-resources for the
SHINE (Self Help INspiring E-resources) Project.
https://www.facebook.com/SHINEwithPlym
If you know of students who may be interested,
please direct them to
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/whats-on/write-from-
the-heart or ask them to contact Dave at
david.sibley@plymouth.ac.uk
Personal Support for Students Available - no
Appointment Needed
Please remind students that we have trained
Listening Post Volunteers based in the Learning
Gateway from 10-00am-4pm, Monday to Friday.
The Listening Post offers a friendly, independent
ear for students to chat to; immediate,
confidential support; and signposting to other
university support services.
Thought for the month
“I've learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did, but people will never
forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou
At the Writing Café, Babbage Building
Care Leavers
Nationally, only 6% of care leavers get to university
- a significantly lower proportion than the 35%+ of
the general population that do (Buttle, 2013).
Recognising that care leavers often struggle to cope
financially and emotionally (Cheung and Heath,
1994), our Care Leaver team provide a specialist
service to enable these students to achieve their full
potential. We offer:
 Financial support including a bursary and
budgeting help
 Personal support including referral and
advocacy
 Sharing of good practice in the support and
care of vulnerable students
Your role in their academic success
Are you a Personal Tutor to any care leaver
students? If you are, do check out whether your
students know about our Care Leaver service.
For more information, please email Louise
(louise.baker@plymouth.ac.uk) or Nadine
(N.Johns@plymouth.ac.uk)

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chaplaincy@plymouth.ac.uk das@plymouth.ac.uk 3
Disability Assist
Exam Support Deadline Approaches
The end of January 2015 is the deadline when
all Student Support Documents need to be
completed for disabled students. A Student
Support Document provides important
information and links to guidance on student
support, and should be forwarded onto the
Programme Manager, relevant teaching,
administration and support staff by each Faculty.
Disability Assist provides a copy to the student.
The DAS team are currently exceptionally busy
making sure that additional time, breaks and
exam room size detailed in these documents are
in place for our students.
Dyslexia Reimbursement Scheme
In April 2014 we established the Dyslexia
Reimbursement Scheme where Disability Assist
will refund £150 of the cost of a dyslexia
assessment if certain criteria are met.
In addition students who were assessed in
preparation for university can also claim the
refund once they have enrolled. Their
assessment must meet set criteria and have
been carried out within six months prior to
enrolment at this university.
The refund remains at the discretion of Disability
Assist.
Please note this is a refund and will be paid
after an assessment. The student remains
responsible for paying the assessor in
accordance with how they wish to be paid
(usually on the day of the assessment). This
means that the student will have to finance the
assessment themselves initially and if they are
found to be not dyslexic they will not be entitled
to a refund. Please contact DAS for further
information.
Multi Faith Chaplaincy
You might have thought that after Christmas the
chaplaincy team would be having a quiet January
- after all we are always being told that it is our
busiest time of the year – but we already have
plenty of events lined up for the new term. See
below, or drop in and see us, at the Multi-Faith
Chaplaincy, Kirkby Terrace. Indeed we did get
about three hundred people for the university carol
service and sent out email messages for advent to
students and staff who requested them. The
retiring offering raised £351 for the Shekinah
Mission to the Homeless.
Holocaust survivor talk
We are very excited to host a talk by Holocaust
survivor Solly Irving entitled Destined to Survive –
Memories of the Holocaust which will be on
Wednesday January 14th
at 7.00pm in Lecture
Theatre 2 RLB. Admission is free and all are
welcome. Since it is now seventy years since the
end of World War Two there are fewer and fewer
people who can give personal testimony to these
events and so this might be one of the last
opportunities to hear a holocaust survivor
speaking in Plymouth.
We’ve also planned three walks for the spring
term, an event for Shrove Tuesday and two further
lectures - one called the Box Office Bible and the
other by Professor Sir Ghillean Prance. Further
details to follow …
Email Chaplaincy@plymouth.ac.uk
Tel 01752 587760
10:00 - 16:00 (term), 12:00 - 14:00 (holidays)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Plymouth-
University-Multi-Faith-
Chaplaincy/150075715036434
HOT OFF THE PRESS

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disengagement or withdrawal in your students,
please remind them that support is available, and
that they should access this sooner rather than
later if possible. Learning Development and the
Writing Café offer friendly, informal and
supportive learning environments where students
can develop their writing and thinking. As
Thomas reports: ‘students are more likely to
engage with the study support and personal
development … if they are easily accessible ...
[and] feel they are supported towards success’
(2012: 61). Please encourage students to visit
Learning Gateway in RLB, or the Writing Café in
the Babbage Building. You are also welcome to
publicise our web pages:
https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/student-
life/services/learning-gateway/learning-
development
NEW GROUP EVENT
Managing Anxiety: a drop-in group
Every Wednesday for students
First session Wednesday 21st
January
3-4pm
Please contact
Philipp.grote@plymouth.ac.uk
FREE
Laptop security marking
for staff and students
Learning Gateway, Roland Levinsky Building
Dates for 2015
2 – 4pm
January 28th
February 25th
March 25th
April 21st
LSW Groupwork / Events
January can be a difficult time of year for some
Many students arrive at University with a limited
understanding of the academic skills that will be
required, and the University supports a remarkable
diversity of students. Discipline support is provided
by tutors, but often there is little time to concentrate
on academic skills, and students often struggle most
with academic writing and critical thinking. A study
conducted by the Higher Education Academy found
that, ‘…over half of those who were having difficulty
in coping with academic study had considered
withdrawal.’ (Yorke and Longden, 2008: 7) Around
17% of students actually withdraw because of
academic issues (Hovdhaugen and Aamodt, 2009).
We know that this time of year brings additional
stresses and strains, on top of the increasing
academic demands of assignment deadlines and
looming exams. So, if you notice signs of
Learning Development
learn@plymouth.ac.uk thewritingcafe@plymouth.ac.uk 4