CENTRE FOR SUCCESSFUL SCHOOLS 20TH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE

The Centre for Successful Schools celebrated its 20th anniversary this week with a day conference, 'Promoting and Celebrating School Success'. Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Rama Thirunamachandran gave the opening address for this major event, welcoming more than 100 representatives of educational institutions, leaders of schools and local authorities to the University. 

Keynote speeches were given by: the Centre's founder, Sir Tim Brighouse, former Directors of the Centre, Sir Michael Barber and Professor Kate Myers, and the former Chief Adjudicator for Schools, Sir Philip Hunter. These presentations reviewed educational change/improvement during the last 20 years, and addressed current and future opportunities and challenges to schooling and educational policy.

An expert panel discussion, and a range of seminar sessions given by other distinguished educationalists, including Andy Reid CBE (a former member of the Ofsted Senior Management Team), and Yvonne Jeffries CBE (a former headteacher) also contributed to the success of the conference.

ALUMNI RELIVE "TURBULENT YEARS" AT WEEKEND REUNION

Keele alumni enjoyed a successful reunion last weekend, held in Keele Hall and the Students' Union. The reunion theme was "Turbulent Years" since our 131 alumni guests from the Classes of 1970 to 1979 experienced one of the more eventful eras in Keele's history.

Alumni brought in memorabilia, photographs and ephemera to contribute to the Keele Oral History Project. They enjoyed talks and tours of Keele Hall and the campus focusing on early success stories of the Keele Key Fund – among them the Earth and Space Centre, the refurbishment of the top lake and the Lakeside Walks.

They enjoyed a guest presentation by Professor Peter Styles about "Keele's Green Future" and were welcomed to the Keele Society Dinner by Professor Peter Jones. Toasts were raised by Adam Mason, President of the Students' Union and Dr Gordon Mousinho, who studied for his BA, MA and PhD at Keele between 1971 and 1980.

The CFM Conference team and the Students' Union provided excellent support for the event.

VE @ KEELE OVERSEAS CHALLENGE 2009 EXHIBITION

VE @ Keele held a video and photographic exhibition in the Students' Union highlighting their Overseas Challenge volunteer programme which took place in Thailand in August.

 Set up as a partnership project with VE @ Keele, Manchester Metropolitan University student volunteering project (CoMMUni) and charity Volunteers for Educational Support & Learning (VESL), Overseas Challenge supported Keele students to teach English in rural primary schools. The project was a success and is set to be repeated in 2010, taking VE @ Keele closer to their ambition of creating a long-term sustainable overseas volunteer programme.

VE @ Keele would like to thank Keele Key Fund for providing the essential funds needed to cover additional project costs, Dr Carol Gray, of the School of Medicine, for providing essential first aid training and Keele's English Language Unit for a very useful session on Thai language and culture.

DEPUTY VC MEETS HONG KONG ALUMNI

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Rama Thirunamachandran met a group of Keele alumni in Hong Kong. They enjoyed a dinner gathering at Wanchai and learned more about Keele's ambitions for the future and our plans to keep in touch with our alumni all around the world. The photo was provided by Selina Tsang (Class of 1991) and shows some of our many enthusiastic alumni in Hong Kong.

The Keele European Parties Research Unit (part of the Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice) was well represented at the fifth General Conference of the European Consortium of Political Research which took place recently in Potsdam. Dr Elisabeth Carter co-organised a section entitled 'Perspectives on the Radical Right' which, with nine consecutive panels, contained over fifty separate papers. Dr Carter and Dr Kurt Richard Luther (convenor of KEPRU) acted as discussant on two of these panels. The section attracted wide interest, so much so that the German publisher LIT Verlag has since suggested publishing a selection of the papers presented.

LPJ PhD student Kostas Gemenis presented a paper entitled 'Estimating Parties' Policy Positions in European Parliament Elections: A Confrontational Approach', while Dr Gemma Loomes, a former Keele PhD student, presented a paper on 'Party Strategies in Western Europe: A Framework for Analysis'.

Dr Carter and Dr Luther also organised meetings of the ECPR Standing Groups they convene: the Standing Group on Extremism and Democracy, and the Standing Group on Political Parties.  

KEYNOTE ADDRESS ON GREEN POLITICAL THEORY

Professor Andrew Dobson, of SPIRE, gave a keynote address to the German Political Science Association at the Christian-Albrechts University, Kiel. He spoke on the topic of 'Green Political Theory: a critical retrospective', and his lecture was responded to by the distinguished social theorist, Professor Claus Offe, of the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin.

SIX TOWNS: ONE RESIDENTIAL

Widening Participation & Life Long Learning Division's Events Team have hosted their first major residential of the academic year. The 'Six Towns' residential saw 260 local KS4 students spend over 24 hours on campus, with a disco and an overnight stay. The aim was to raise the aspirations of the attendees by giving them a real insight into what it is to be an undergraduate student for two days.

As well as sessions from Keele academics, including Dr David Bedford explaining how Derren Brown really predicted the lottery numbers, the young people also took part in football and archery competitions.  The event was the last one that will be coordinated by Charlotte Greenwood, who would like to thank all academics and staff for their help over the years.

NEW APPOINTMENT

The following academic appointment commenced in post this week:

KEELE MANAGEMENT SCHOOL

Ms Anna-Maria Murtola, Lecturer in Management, who was previously a Teaching Assistant and Research Associate at Abo Akademi University, Finland.