About me
Hi, I’m Pat your Sport and Student Development Officer for this year!
I came into the role after being Bristol Men’s Football Club captain for the past year which gave me a sense of how impactful and rewarding it could be to make a positive impact on students’ experience. This opportunity provides me with a platform to do that on a much wider scale and make real change this year.
In my role I represent all sports clubs, societies and student groups, as well as each of you (their members) to make sure your voice is heard when decisions that impact students are made and to help improve everything from facilities to training resources.
This year I’m going to be working to develop the sense of community surrounding Sports at Bristol, tailor committee training for different groups and review financial access and existing barriers to Sport.
Drop me a line if you want to chat about all things sport, exercise or favourite recipes.
My Priorities
Enhancing the Wider Sporting Community
Aim to elevate the feeling of community within the sporting scene at the University of Bristol, through opportunities to celebrate sporting success, with the goal of connecting sports clubs with the wider SU and the university.
- Increase the number of students supporting competitive university fixtures.
- Support student sports groups to host collaborative events, with the aim of bringing sports groups together, promoting sporting success, and raising the profile of Bristol SU sports groups.
- Create an invitational sports event, where Bristol's competitive sports clubs invite external university teams to compete in an end of year performance excellence showcase.
Student Leader Development
Improve engagement and attendance of committee fest, as well as introducing more specific training for sport club leaders, aiming to give more student leaders the tools to progress their societies.
- Increase attendance of student training by readvertising committee fest and making some sessions mandatory for all student leaders to attend, with the aim to increase their personal skills and development, with this impact spreading throughout their groups.
- Introduce tailored sport club leaders training, separate from the general student leader training. This will include running a session and developing a take-home guide for club captains.
- Introduce wellbeing training for a member of committee, to ensure there is a member of student groups dedicated to supporting the wellbeing of members within student groups.
Fair Financial Access to Sport
Reviewing and improving Bristol Sport financial structures to ensure funding and facilities access is relative to cost paid and look to remove barriers for participation in Sports Clubs and Intramural Sport.
- Address the inequalities that arise from a ‘one price for all’ BUCS pass, by evaluating the current system with the aim to equate the product competitive clubs receive relative to the cost their members pay.
- Aim to keep the Wednesday bus to coombe dingle, and work with the intramural team to add a stop at the downs, to eliminate some of the hidden costs of participating in intramural sport.
- Increase awareness of Bristol Students about the existing support and assistance to access sport
What I've Been Working On
Derby Day! 500 Bristol athletes and 30 sports clubs competed against their biggest rivals. Coombe Dingle was bouncing, it was great!
Working with the Gambling Harms Research Group put together a presentation from some students from the USA who are undertaking a research project on gambling harms. I am giving them a presentation about gambling and students here at Bristol.
Secured the final arrangements for Derby Day to get the best offer for our athletes possible and making the free event accessible for all spectators.
My Previous Updates
August 2023
- Working on Club Captain specific training, specifically my ‘top tips’ for the incoming CC’s and Presidents’s at their Club Captain day.
- Are in talks with the university and internal SU staff to draw up initial plans for an end of season sporting event. Have had some initial discussions and first meetings are set up.
- Held a presentation for a visiting Chinese University (Zhejiang University) introducing them to the student Union.
- Sport Leader Development - Working on getting some sport-leader specific training set up to hopefully go ahead in pre-welcome training. This will be a session where I run club captains through everything that I know now, not only from an SU point of view, but from a former club captain, that I wish I knew when I started my first term.
- I have started internal discussions surrounding wellbeing training for our student groups. We have a new member of the SU team dedicated to all things wellbeing, and once she has settled in, we will be working hard to equip our student groups with a member of committee who is the wellbeing champion for their members.
- The Wednesday bus has been confirmed for next year! It will run later in the evening, giving students a free pass to come down to Coombe Dingle to enjoy our Wednesday afternoon/evening sports. I am very excited about this, and I really hope we see more students (and staff) supporting our brilliant sports teams. The 1 o'clock bus will also stop at the downs, meaning our 11-a-side intramural sport footballers have a free ride up Whiteladies Road, saving their legs to score some goals on the hallow turf!
September 2023
- Helped organise club captain's day, and ran an individual introductory session to increase the visibility of my role, as well as giving the current club captains as much information as possible to help them throughout the year.
- I also ran a session on sporting community with our sports group leaders, to try and get a sense of what a sporting community means to them, and allow them to shape the work that I do this year surrounding sporting community. A member of SU staff (Bach) did a similar session on wellbeing.
- Was on the panel interviewing for a new member of our events team, which was crucial to get in before welcome week! He helped run many events in the Richmond Building, including Morning Mass Yoga and the Bristol RAG pub quiz.
- Welcome Week! We had a fantastic Welcome Week, where we attended many events, from carnival dancing to the Multifaith Network meet-up! The week was finished up with Welcome Fair, and it was a fantastic day! I spent my time going from the Give it a Go! arena, to the sports tent, checking in on our brilliant sports leaders. The Give it a Go! programme is still running so make sure to check it out!
- Intramural has started! On Saturday, along with Alex (our intramural coordinator), I looked after the introductory matches at Coombe Dingle for our first year Halls of Residents teams. Some great football was played, and some serious passion was shown, which is great to see! Intramural is a great way to play competitive sport, without the need to commit to training at a very reasonable price!
- Adam and I Represented the SU the Colour Run on Sunday put on by Bristol Uni Sport at Coombe Dingle. It was a brilliant afternoon (even though Adam beat me) and we had an SU stall up, so managed to reach hundreds of students to inform them all about what we do at the SU, including our upcoming elections!
October 2023
- I sat on the Activity Hardship Fund panel, and we were able to fund 68 applications, amounting to over £8,000. We had more applications than ever, and it is always really good to be able to fund so many, especially given we increased the maximum grant to £150, from £100 last year.
- The past couple weeks, I have been working with SEH (UoB's Sport, Exercise and Health department) and our marketing team to take on the feedback received at the club captains day to try and improve the communications surrounding fixtures. On the back of this, we have developed a fixture list not only on the website, but on the SU Instagram story every week. This is not only for our sporty students to check their fixtures, but so it is easier for students who may not be necessarily looking for sport fixtures to stumble across them. Check out the BUCS Sport webpage
- I also did some promotional content for the Free Wednesday Shuttle Bus on the Bristol SU story. I really do not love being on camera but I hope it was helpful!!! You can find more information about the free bus to Coombe Dingle in my Guide to Student Sport in Bristol.
- I ran our first Club Captains' forum last week, and I had around 45 attendees, from 32 different clubs. It was an incredibly helpful couple of hours for me, and I gathered lots of fantastic feedback that will certainly help me steer my work, to ensure that it is student-led. During the second half of the meeting, the floor was opened to the Club Captains for them to share any great wins, or issues that they may have. The Club Captains this year are a fantastic group of students & people, and thanks to them for all their help!
- I organised some filming with 4 brilliant wellbeing officers from Futsal, Boat, Men's Football and Men's Rugby Union that commenced at Coombe Dingle. It was a nice informal conversation about what mental health and wellbeing means to us as sports people, and why there may be a stigma surrounding men talking to men about most things! It was part of Men's Mental Health Awareness Month, and leads into the Movember Campaign nicely.
- Adam (your Union Affairs Officer) and I are in the process of organising the Bristol SU World Cup! This will be an event where students can represent their countries in a football tournament, held at Coombe Dingle. We have confirmed the date, time and location, and are currently in the process of organising teams, working out our marketing strategy and setting up the sign-up process. If you are part of an international society and are a keen footballer, keep an eye on your emails!
- I was on the panel for the new Student Development Coordinator. This role is very important for our student groups, as they look after grants, training and many more aspects that help things run smoothly.
November 2023
- Sat on the next panel for group grants. This was particularly important as three of our applications were for sport-specific cameras, and were rejected in the previous round, due to the high cost. I worked with SEH (the University Sport, Exercise and Health department) to secure a 50% discount on the cameras, and then led a meeting with the relevant groups to unpick the previous application and encourage them to reapply with the new requirements including the 50% discount on the cameras. The panel approved these applications and the cameras will be on their way to the groups!
- Adam (your Union Affairs Officer) and I are putting together the final behind-the-scenes touches for the Bristol SU World Cup! This will be a 6-a-side mixed gender football tournament, where students will represent their nation. If you are part of an international/cultural society, keep an eye out on your emails. Sign up information will be released very soon!
- One of our sport groups were having pushback from some staff members when it came to storing their kit in lockers at the ISC, which allowed them to complete their group activity. They raised this with me at CC forum, so I worked with SEH to come to a solution where they could continue to store their kit in lockers, helping many to rejoin the activity, and allowing the core group function to continue to operate as it has for many years!
- As part of the Cost of Living campaign, Adam, Izzy and I did some low-cost cooking! We cooked a traditional Malaysian curry (Adam's finest recipe). It was great fun, we got lots of fab content and even though it was one of the spiciest things I've ever eaten, it was delicious. We then brought the meal to the Global Food Fair, where we dished it out whilst answering officer-related questions (specifically on cost of living).
- The end of season sporting event that I have promised is well underway! I am working hard with SEH to put together the plans, and the expression of interest form has now been released to our clubs. If you are part of a sports club and want to be involved, make sure you get your Club Captain/ President to fill in the form!
- I held Club Captain forum #2 on Tuesday. It was again well attended, with 28 different sports group leaders there. We had some really fruitful discussions and it was incredibly helpful for me again. I was also able to bring in 2 external speakers, to present to the leaders on some fantastic opportunities for them and their clubs.
December 2023
- We are doing our second low-cost meal tomorrow (14 Dec)!!! This time it will be a budget Xmas Dinner :) Look out for the next post on the instagram.
- World Cup has now reached 16 teams signed up!!! The player sign up form will be open soon so keep an eye out. We are pretty much all set to go on the 20th January. It's coming home!!
- Expression of interest for the end of season sports event has now closed. This is a sports competition hosted at Bristol where our sports clubs will be competing against a rival university on 20 March. We have 32 different clubs that have signed up, which is great! We are now moving onto the process of facility allocation and then invitations will be sent out to the opposition universities.
- Was on the Panel for the new Student Development Coordinators, and this time around we were successful! We had 2 successful applicants, meaning our student opportunities team is once again full. These staff members spend a lot of time working directly with student group leaders in development meetings and consultations.
January 2024
- After months of planning and talking about it, Adam (your Union Affairs Officer) and I held the inaugural Bristol SU World Cup on Saturday 20 January! It was a fantastic event, attended by 16 different sets of students (over 160 players) representing their nation, and around 100 spectators/supporters, who brought flags, chants and incredible energy to light up the day. The final between France and Spain was settled with a nail-biting penalty shootout, with France coming out as winners. Malaysia won the best supporters prize (run very close by Spain and Mexico) and our Player of the Tournament was Spain's Alex Lindley. It was most certainly the highlight of my time here so far!
- Derby Day is closing in... In less than 2 months, the biggest sporting event of the year will take place at Coombe Dingle, where we will host numerous universities as part of a day to celebrate the sporting success of our fantastic Sports clubs. We are finalising plans for the event and clubs are in the process of inviting their opposition. Whether you are part of a sports club or not, this event will be one that you won't want to miss!
- Through lobbying with Adam, we have managed to secure a boost to our Activity Hardship Fund from the Global Engagement Division (Alumni funding). This means that we will be able to fund more applications of our already over-subscribed activity grant, helping around 100 more students access their activity.
February 2024
- Derby Day is less than a month away! We are currently working hard to make this the best day in the UoB sporting calendar, and everyone is invited. There will be some fantastic live sport, as well as food, drinks, music, games and much more! Look out for content on the SU Instagram as well as club's instagram's. 20th March - see you there!
- Adam and I are in talks with the university over increasing the access to student groups for all students, and these conversations have recently taken a very positive turn! Hopefully more to come soon, but as a sneak preview, we are hoping to increase the pot by 500%.
- Thanks to the work we did with the Philanthropy team, the £10,000 boost we received to the Activity Hardship Fund led to us being able to fund a much higher percentage of applications in the third round. This big win was very much felt during the panel, and meant we could help a lot more students than we would have been previously able to.
March 2024
- Adam’s Ramadan Bazar was a great success!
