Education Officer Blog

Hello lovely people! This is a special (short and sweet) post out of the normal routine to briefly fill you in on Lead and Change. Lead and Change is a conference ran by the NUS at the start of August to bring together officers from across the country, and give us training on a whole host of issues that relate to being an officer.

First and foremost, if it isn’t out by the time this post goes live, I have to let y’all know that carpool karaoke with the rest of the officers was absolutely the best. Leaving home before you’re even typically awake is a universally horrific experience but being able to see everyone jamming out to Taylor Swift (and seeing a bright pink Barbie car!) makes it totally worth it.

Most of our time at Lead and Change was spent in ‘facilitator rooms’ where we had been matched with people who have similar positions to us across different universities. In my room we had education officers (and the many different ways their titles varied) from all over London, Birmingham, Middlesex, and of course Bath! Here we learnt all about our common manifesto points, how our different unions vary, and some great training on issues such as boundaries, communication, and everything in between.

As well as this, it was absolutely amazing to see how many different enthusiastic officers we had when our groups collaborated for a strange game about seeds, and seeing how different the university culture is across the country. We shared a flat with Warwick which meant we learnt about, of all things, ‘circling’ – which at first glance seems less like a round of games and more like some kind of weird initiation.

If there is anything I am most grateful for, it is being able to see so many officers together all at once. I absolutely cannot wait to see everything we all get up to, and adore that I can help cheer them all on!

Is there anything you’d want to know about Lead and Change ?

TTYL ! - Amber