F2H: Transition from FE to HE in English Studies launch event
13th September 2010
Blackpool & The Fylde College
Candice Satchwell
The lashing rain and gale-force wind ensured that everyone was wet as they arrived at our
event (having negotiated the door on the top floor that can only be opened from the inside).
However, greeted by George Formby and sticks of Blackpool rock, we hoped to transport
our audience to a scene where the sun shines, and students and lecturers achieve great
things.
The event was designed to launch the resources produced during our project supported by
the Higher Education Academy, part of what is cumbersomely entitled the Disciplinefocused Learning Technology Enhancement Academy 2010. Our project intended to produce
online materials to help students make the transition from FE to HE in English Studies. Many
of the students studying at HE level at Blackpool & The Fylde College are ‘non-traditional’ in
that they are often mature students, with families and jobs, who have taken unconventional
routes through education. The two English degrees offered by the college are the BA (Hons)
English: Communications at Work, and the BA (Hons) English Language, Literature and
Writing. While some of our resources - on academic writing, grammar, etc. - would be
applicable to several programmes of study, we also felt we needed to address the
requirement in the latter degree to study all three strands of English. We therefore wanted
to provide introductory materials for students wanting grounding and/or revision in
Language, Literature, and Creative Writing.
It was wonderful that a number of Blackpool & The Fylde College’s own past and present
students attended. They had been consulted during the course of the project, and were
keen to see the results. Others included members of the college staff from different areas,
including learning support, learning resources, and other disciplines, and lecturers from
other HE in FE institutions.
We began this event by explaining the justification and the original vision for the project,
followed by a description of the process – including several pitfalls and technological
barriers encountered along the way. We also demonstrated examples of our resources,
complemented by a reading of ‘The Sea’ by poet John Siddique. We had used this poem as a
focus for our introductory Language module, and it was a privilege to have John himself at
our event. It was particularly pertinent that he prefaced his reading with a reflection on his
experiences in schools of ‘literacy’ being seen a stand-alone skill, rather than bound up in
the experience of literature and language.
Over lunch people attending the event were given the opportunity to explore the resources
for themselves using laptops. We then collected immediate feedback, followed by a ‘Liquid
Café’ activity where attendees were invited to discuss in more depth the three areas of
‘Process’, ‘Content’ and ‘Widening participation’.
The project is still ongoing, and the feedback was therefore invaluable: we hope to build on
the contributions from all who attended. The online resources should be available for our
own undergraduates as they begin their studies this year, and will be more widely available
in due course.