The Impact of Educational Environments

I am Dr Thamara Bulmer; I have worked at the University of Hull for the past 10 years. During those years I have held several roles and have been Program Director for Early Childhood Studies as well as interim Program Director for the Working with Children Young People and Families degrees. I am currently a lecturer on both those programmes.

The Early Childhood (three year taught) program focuses on the development of young children from birth to eight and we also deliver the Graduate Practitioner Status in conjunction with the degree. This is an exciting program as students get to undertake placements in various settings, gain lots of knowledge about developmental aspects of children and work with our youngest in society.

The Working with Children Young People and Families (2 year taught) programme supports our students to be able to gain knowledge and experience in working in various settings to gain practical experience and to gain a deep understanding of family dynamics as well as being taught wider aspects such as the multiagency professional relationships and safeguarding aspects involved in future job roles.

As part of the delivery of these two courses, I enjoy sharing different environmental settings with the students to enable them to gain wider knowledge and understanding of the different aspects of learning. Therefore, learning does not just take place in the lecture theatres and during their placements, I also take the students on visits to various settings such as The Deep, different organisations within Hull such as Home Start, the Octagon (which is a family hub) and Densholme Care Farm which is a farm which offers social, educational and therapeutic development opportunities for children who find regular mainstream education challenging. We also deliver Forest school education as a team at the university, to enable the students to have a wider view of educational and learning practices.