OT Students and staff come together for GCU Student’s Association’s Teaching Awards
Thoughtful students ensured Occupational Therapy staff members received some well-deserved recognition at this year’s GCU Students’ Association’s Teaching Awards.
The annual event, which took place on the 19th of May, recognises and promotes the work of academic and non-academic staff members who have a positive impact on student’s learning experience.
Katrina Bannigan, Fiona Coupar, Emma Green, Deborah Walker and Katie Thomson were all nominated for awards on the night, and the Occupational Therapy (OT) Society were determined to make sure they knew just how appreciative students were of their efforts.
Vice President, Katie Moffat, explained: “A couple of weeks before was the STAR Awards and quite a lot of the OT Society members were shortlisted. On the night, about ten lecturing staff from our programme went along to support us, which they didn’t need to do.
“When we heard the Teaching Awards were going to be online, we decided that they should have a big fuss made for them as well – especially since so many of them were shortlisted.”
The OT Society pressed ahead with their plans and booked out the Social Learning Space in the ground floor of the GCU Students’ Association.
Katie said: “We wanted to make sure we were there to give them a big cheer if they won an award, rather than them just sitting at their computer screens. The lecturers brought their laptops with them to join the ceremony and we were in the background making lots of noise with our party poppers.”
Thankfully, there was plenty of reason to celebrate on the night; Katie Thomson picked up the award for Cutting-Edge Curriculum and Fiona Coupar was recognised for her work in providing Fantastic Feedback.
Katie said: “We were so pleased for them – they definitely deserved it! We obviously think they’re great at everything they’re doing but for it to be acknowledged by the University is just fantastic.
“All of the staff put a lot of effort in, especially to things like feedback and feed forward. There’s been a lot of changes to the curriculum this year with lots of additional resources being added in, so it was nice to see them recognised for it.”
The OT Society also recently held their own awards, which again celebrated staff members and their efforts to go the extra mile - but Katie insists the positive relationship between staff and students reflects far more than just teaching.
She explained: “We obviously work closely with the academic staff as the OT Society Committee but in general, they put a lot of effort into establishing a rapport with students and really try to build a community within the programme.
“It’s never felt like a hierarchy between staff and students – we’ve always had that opportunity to contribute to our learning and Occupational Therapy as a whole.”
By Ross Clark
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