WELS news

Often, pregnant teenagers and young mothers face discrimination and stigma in accessing healthcare services. Additionally, they are sometimes expelled from school when they become pregnant, limiting their ability to improve their lives and achieve their goals.

A new research grant is looking at how supporting teachers in Ghana to adopt play-based practice in schools can improve learning outcomes. Play-based learning is important because it helps children develop foundational numeracy, literary and socio-economic skills. Right to Play, Canada, have awarded £112,000 to the research team led by Professor Kwame Akyeampong based in the Centre for the Study of Global Development (CSGD) to study the impact of the Learning through Play project (P3) in Ghanaian basic schools.

OU nursing student Grace McAleer, a final year student on the Adult Future Nurse Pre-Registration Nursing Degree Programme, has received The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Northern Ireland Gabrielle Award.

In 2002, injury sadly meant that Adrian Rollins was forced to seek a new career away from professional cricket. Now working as a Deputy Head of School, Adrian, 50, shares how The Open University (OU) empowered him to launch a career in education.

Results are in for the annual Open University Graduate School ‘Bake Your Research’ competition… and WELS has bagged the top spot for a second year running.

The Faculty of WELS welcomes two new Research Fellows based in Scotland. This is a significant moment as the faculty becomes the first at the OU to have a research presence in the four nations where the OU is based. 

Dr Sarah Vicary has been promoted to Professor of Social Work and Mental Health, within the OU’s Faculty of WELS.  

Dr Natalie Canning, Co-Director of The Open University’s Children’s Research Centre, launches the Empowerment Framework, a new tool for childhood practitioners to analyse children’s play and activities. Based on Dr Canning’s research into Early Childhood contexts, the tool supports the understanding of child development through an empowerment focus.

The OU's global development project, SAGE – Supporting Adolescent Girls’ Education – was recently visited by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) who praised the initiative for its positive impact on women and girls in Zimbabwe.

The OU has secured funding of £5.8m from the Office for Students (OfS) to develop extended reality studios, Open XR Studios, to expand its teaching and learning with augmented and virtual reality.