Early career lecturers online café

• To build a supportive professional community by creating a welcoming peer network where early career lecturers can share experiences, exchange ideas, and connect with others who are new to academia. 
   
• To facilitate reflective practice by providing space for interactive reflection on educational practice, enabling participants to explore successes, challenges, and personal experiences in a safe environment. 
   
• To enhance pedagogical skills development and confidence through discussion of educational theories relating to learning, teaching and assessment and exchange of ideas around topics such as curriculum design, quality assurance and supporting learners.  
   
• To support work-life balance by acknowledging the differences of working in academia and sharing strategies to manage boundaries, maintain sustainable teaching practices and support wellbeing.  
   
• To encourage continuing professional development and scholarly activity by sharing CPD opportunities relating to learning and teaching in higher education and discussing research and scholarship pathways.  
   
• To begin to develop an academic identity through informal opportunities to learn about roles responsibilities and expectations of being a lecturer.   
   
• To provide an opportunity for discipline specific discussions with other early career occupational therapy lecturers from other education providers.  

Dr Katherine Ward  – Education Enhancement Advisor, RCOT

Kath brings a wealth of expertise to pre-registration occupational therapy education, having supported the development of future practitioners for the past 21 years. Her career began in mental health settings, giving her first-hand insight into the realities of occupational therapy practice settings. This means she not only understands the journey from practice to academia but has successfully navigated it herself, bringing authenticity, depth, and real-world perspective to her experience.  Kath has worked at RCOT as an Education Enhancement Advisor since April 2025.

Rhi Carter – Lecturer in Occupational Therapy, University of Winchester

Rhi is an occupational therapist with eight years’ clinical experience, specialising in older people’s care across emergency departments and hospital at home services. She also has a longstanding interest in sports development and the use of sport and meaningful activity to support the health and wellbeing of young people. Rhi is now a lecturer in occupational therapy at the University of Winchester, where she has developed a particular interest in active, immersive and creative approaches to education. She is currently completing an MA in Education, exploring how creative arts, experiential learning and innovative teaching approaches can support students to learn, reflect and develop their professional identity. Alongside teaching, Rhi is developing her writing practice, with a particular interest in occupational therapy, creativity, education and the human stories that sit at the heart of practice.


Rachel Bloodworth-Strong – Senior Lecturer in Occupational Therapy, University of Winchester

Rachel is Programme lead for a new Degree Apprenticeship in Occupational Therapy at the University of Winchester. She has over 20 years' experience as an occupational therapist spanning a range of clinical areas including trauma and orthopaedics, intermediate care, acute and community mental health and adult social care, more recently in a leadership role. She is a practising Approved Mental Health Professional with an MA in Advanced Mental Health Practice. She has recently been a lecturer in occupational therapy at Oxford Brookes University. She has a background in teaching English to speakers of other languages after her initial degree in modern languages and then some time spent working in the voluntary sector.  She is passionate about all forms of simulation in education and fascinated in exploring the 'doing' of occupation in the classroom setting. She is interested in the development of occupational therapy in role-emerging settings and developing research within social care. She spends her free time swimming, cycling, travelling with her lovely family and two young adult daughters performing in musical theatre and volunteering.

Attendees can use the RCOT virtual café five-minute reflection to record their learnings from the session:
 

Five minute reflection.docx (DOC, 208.43KB)
 

Also available here: Bite-sized learning - RCOT 

Recording your reflections soon afterwards is encouraged as part of your continued professional development (CPD). RCOT members have access to an online platform and app to make CPD recording easy and accessible. Doing this will support your development and help you to meet the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) Standards of CPD.