St Mary’s University awards an annual prize in recognition of the contribution of staff to enhancing the student learning experience by developing creative and/or innovative approaches to learning, teaching and/or assessment. It may be awarded to an individual or a team.
The aim of the prize is to recognise and reward outstanding achievement and innovation. The prize consists of a sum of £1,000.
Criteria
Applications will be evaluated against the following criteria.
- Distinctiveness/innovation: How unique is the initiative at St Mary’s? How will the initiative enhance teaching and learning at St Mary’s? What will be the measures of successful enhancement?
- Effectiveness: How effective has the initiative been? What evidence is there to support this? (e.g. student feedback, module evaluation data, other survey data, attainment data).
- Potential for institutional impact: How will the initiative influence practice in other disciplines/programme areas/institutions?
- Alignment with scholarship: How has scholarship influenced the development and/or implementation of the initiative?
- Alignment with University and sector priorities. How does the initiative align with current institutional priorities e.g. retention, the BAME attainment gap, inclusive and research-informed teaching, the UK Professional Standards Framework and current developments in the Higher Education sector?
Application Process
All members of staff are eligible.
To apply, complete the application form and submit to adf@stmarys.ac.uk. Deadline for applications is Monday 5th May 2025 by 5pm. Please make sure you have aligned your application with the five criteria listed above.
Presentation to the Award Panel: The presentation date for short-listed applicants is Wednesday 4th June 2025.
Presentation to the Award Panel
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to make a 10 minute presentation of their work to the Award Panel, followed by questions. Although the merits of each proposal will be judged chiefly in terms of the criteria stated above, the nature of the actual presentation will also be taken into account when making the final decision.
Walpole Prize Winners 2018-2024
2018: Using video for online assignment feedback - Micheal Hobson
Upon commencing studying for a PhD in 2014, I started to think very carefully about elements of my practice in relation to feedback and preparation of modules. Especially in relation to how I could best support students who required additional help.
It was my view that by recording videos that had both audio and some written feedback on I could attempt to make an intelligent choice regarding the complex situation of how best to use the time providing feedback on assignment scripts. I believe more specific and individualized feedback can help retention in that it can be utilized in the development of a growth mindset. Verbal feedback has greater emotion and empathetic tone.
2019: Using online collaborative group blogs as a means of authentic, learning oriented assessment in sports coaching. Liam Mcarthy & Tom Hounsell
The 12-week module provided a platform for 40 students from St Mary’s University and 15 students from Ohio University to engage in an online community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991). This community of practice was hosted by Wordpress (www.wordpress.com), a Web 2.0 technology which affords users the opportunity to both author and share multimedia blogs on a secure webpage.
We encouraged students from both Universities to blog on a bi-weekly basis and comment on the blogs of other community members, to generate ongoing discussion. At the end of the module, students were offered the opportunity to select the 3000 words which best reflected their engagement with the community of practice, and those were marked as a written assessment.
2020: The Simulated Work Placement - Lucy Steptoe
Using the desired St. Mary’s graduate attributes (St. Mary’s Curriculum Framework 2019), module learning outcomes and our Workplace Assessment criteria, we developed a SWP which mirrored a real-life placement. Throughout Semester 1, we have had approximately 50 students working on the SWP across a total of five Level 5 and Level 6 modules. These students reported to their Placement Supervisor (Lucy Steptoe) throughout the process who acted as their ‘virtual boss’, thus simulating a normal placement experience. Students needed to complete weekly set tasks which were developed using World Economic Forum (WEF) soft skills and were chosen to replicate tasks which students might face in the workplace.
2022: Diversity Café - Jane Chambers, Lisa Panford, James Moreland, Nigel Wills
The Diversity Café is a programme-wide enrichment opportunity which aims to facilitate professional dialogue and enhance student understanding of diversity and inclusion issues. This annual event, now in its sixth year, took place online in 2022 over the course of 2 weeks. The Diversity Café is an interactive and dynamic process of engagement which at its core centres social justice in education for the positive impact on young people in our local schools and communities. Through the Diversity Café we seek to empower our Participants (secondary trainee teachers) to reach their full potential by promoting and cultivating supportive, inclusive, collaborative and inspiring working practices (Vision 2030, Pillar 2) through their engagement in professional safe space discussions around topics including Modern Day Slavery, Young Carers, LGBTQ+, Race, Economic Status and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities with Discussion Facilitators who are experts in their respective fields.
2023: The Sports Gazette - Daragh Minogue, Richard Lenton
sportsgazette.co.uk was created when the MA in Sports Journalism was launched in 2010 as a platform to publish student sports writing. It was predicated on the notion that our newsroom is their classroom. Over the years it has grown into a popular digital sports publication and a respected brand known for producing award winning journalists.
The Sports Gazette (SG) is a not for profit, student led and editorially independent online sports magazine and is unique to St Mary's. Importantly, it is followed by many sports editors and journalists across the world and numerous sports governing bodies. Thus, some of our stories are picked up (and sometimes 'ripped') by other media organisations. Unlike most student publications, it regularly secures accreditation to some of the biggest sporting events in the UK, enabling our students to work alongside professional sports journalists during their studies.
2024: The Physio Team for their student clinics in care homes project - Clare Gibson, Sarah Ali, Jo Moody, Tara Crossley, Ellen Fossett, Niamh Foy, Sam Vincent
The St Mary’s University (SMU) Physiotherapy team have designed and executed a student-led rehabilitation project in local care homes. To date, this initiative has provided 10 student placements and 18 weeks of supervised rehabilitation to care home residents. Currently, there is a shortage of placements available for London-based Physiotherapy students and many struggle to meet the clinical hours required for qualification. Historically, this has led to delayed graduations and HCPC registrations for students. Our initiative has contributed to the successful allocation of all student placements at SMU whilst allowing for a unique opportunity to gain real-world practical experience and to develop theoretical knowledge to benefit and rehabilitate the local community. The project is executed by the Physiotherapy lecturing team to ensure clinical quality is high whilst also encouraging student critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
To measure efficacy of our project, our team collected various forms of qualitative and quantative data including falls and admission data, strength measurements and verbal feedback. All are collected at six-week intervals and analysed.
Henry Walpole (1558-95)
The prize has been named after one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales who included teaching among his mission related activities. Henry Walpole (1558-95) was born at Docking in Norfolk and educated at Norwich Grammar School, at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and at Gray’s Inn. He is said to have joined the Catholic Church as a consequence of the martyrdom of Edmund Campion, in whose honour he wrote and secretly printed a long narrative poem. He entered the English College, Rome, in 1583 but joined the Society of Jesus in 1584. In spite of poor health he was ordained a priest in Paris 1588, served as chaplain to the Spanish army in the Netherlands, and then taught in the English seminaries in Seville and Valladolid. From King Philip II of Spain he obtained a charter which authorised the establishment of the English College at Saint-Omer. In 1593 he returned to England, landing at Bridlington on the 6th December, but was arrested the very next day at Kelham on suspicion of being a priest. He was interrogated at York, transferred to the Tower of London where he was tortured fourteen times in two months, and as a result lost the use of his fingers. He was indicted at York under the Act which made it high treason for an Englishman ordained abroad to minister in England, and was condemned to death. He was executed at York on the 7th April 1595 and was canonised by Paul VI in 1970 as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales. His Feast Day is the 25th October.