Laura Ingleby, Deputy Head of Teaching, Learning and Student Experience, SEED

In the week of International Women’s Day, Laura talks about her role and a woman who inspires her.

What do you do in your role?

My remit is quite large in that I manage and coordinate the Teaching, Learning and Student Experience (TLSE) Professional Services (PS) teams in the School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED) to ensure the delivery of undergraduate, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research education. I work very closely with Kelly Osgood (Head of Teaching, Learning and Student Experience), deputising for her, as well as working with the other Managers in the TLSE PS teams. Every day is different and I’m often jumping between very varied tasks on a day-to-day basis from the assessment pledge to budget planning and the work allocation model - WAM!

Can you tell us about a recent achievement in Teaching, Learning and Student Support?

It’s been an incredibly tough year and as I only started in SEED in January 2020, most of my time here has been working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic, however, one of my achievements to date has been delivering the No Disadvantage policy in SEED. My assessment knowledge and skills were a bit rusty, not having managed any assessment activities for a good number of years, so I invested my time in refreshing my knowledge and skills to help support the process. This was also an incredibly stressful and difficult period for me personally as I was trying to juggle work with looking after my two young sons who at the time were four and one years old. In the end, we did a great job in implementing the policy which was down to the hard work of the Teaching & Learning team who did an absolutely fantastic job on top of their already hectic workload.

What has helped you keep connected to colleagues whilst working from home?

The introduction of Teams has been fantastic in keeping me connected to colleagues. The chat function has been so useful for being able to resolve queries quickly and also having more informal chats. The instant video calls also enable me to have a quick face to face conversation if needed which goes some way in replicating the office environment.

We’ve just had International Women’s Day. Can you tell us about a woman you find inspiring and why?

Davina McCall – a successful career, mother to three children and a fitness enthusiast, I admire how she is able to balance it all. She has maintained an established career, in what was a fairly male-dominated arena, alongside being a great mum and keeping herself fit and healthy. Personally, she has overcome a lot in her life and shown strength and resilience in the process.