From Monday 22 - Friday 26, Central is partnering with the NHS to present the Student Knowledge Exchange Festival, a week-long celebration of the Student Knowledge Exchange project between the Central and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.  Across five days, staff and students will share their insights, learning, and achievements from these projects. 

The Student Knowledge Exchange project is focused on student involvement in delivering better patient experience in the NHS and is jointly funded by Research England and the Office for Students.  The project builds on collaborative work that has taken place between Central teams and the NHS for a number of years.  Activities have traditionally been run in hospital settings only, however this term, as a result of the national lockdown, work was supported in broader related settings such as within residential contexts. This adaptability has allowed students to support NHS Staff on COVID wards where possible, whilst bringing their work to related locations such as One Housing Association

During the week-long celebration, Festival events will include interactive workshops, presentations and a celebration of the work created.

The festival celebrates five projects in particular, which have been delivered by undergraduate and postgraduate Applied Theatre students at Central, and which have been facilitated for and with adults living with dementia. Students have also led an online intergenerational project in collaboration with two secondary schools.  

The Festival schedule includes: 

  • Monday 22 March - Life in Lyrics:  A project exploring musical creativity. 

  • Tuesday 23 March -  Auchi Street:  Working in collaboration with students, residents become the producers, designers, writers and performers in their own film.    

  • Wednesday 24 March - Your Story, Your Way:  Focusing on the individual narratives and memories of residents and culminating in the creation of bespoke artefacts.  

  • Thursday 25 March - Intergen:  An intergenerational storytelling project exploring Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. 

  • Friday 26th - Wonder VR:  One-to-one workshops with residents are offered, resulting in a personalised bespoke Virtual Reality (VR) film for each participant.  

Alongside this celebration of work, the Festival will provide attendees with an opportunity to learn via three free, daily skill sharing workshops and facilitator training sessions.  

Each day of the festival, the following events will run: 

  • Skills Sharing Event - 10am-11am: A public skill-sharing workshop. 

  • Facilitator Training Event - 1pm- 2pm:  A facilitator-training for Zoom.  

  • Artefact Sharing and Team Presentations - 2pm-3pm:  A sharing and celebration of the creative artefacts made, presentations by the team, and comments from all those involved. 

For more information and to book to attend any of the free sessions, please visit the Festival’s dedicated booking page

Central students Emily Morris, Leanne Twidale and Ellen Wilson are a part of the Social Enterprise Team for the project, and have been working alongside project lead and principal investigator Dr Nicola Abraham, Consultant Nurse of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust’s Dementia Care Team Jo James, the Dementia Care Team’s Activities Co-Ordinator Rachel Hudspith, and students from across Central’s undergraduate and postgraduate Applied Theatre courses. 

The Student Knowledge Exchange Project has been enabled thanks to funding from Research England and the Office for Students, with additional funding for the Wonder VR project generously provided by My Improvement Network
 

Student Knowledge Exchange Festival

Share this page