Manage your preferences

The Leeds Beckett website is designed to enable you to manage your own privacy preferences. By clicking on 'Cookies' below you can manage what data the site collects about your browsing. This will only maintain if you are on your own device or using a synched version of your chosen browser. If you are using a shared or public machine without synching your browser then there is no need to change the preferences.

Our site is built with accessibility in mind and we seek to adhere to the WACG AA levels of compliance for digital accessibility. To support that we have provided instructions on managing animations below.

Cookies

Necessary Cookies
Necessary cookies enable you to use all the different parts of leedsbeckett.ac.uk. Without them services that you have asked for cannot be provided. Necessary cookies can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.
Analytical Cookies
Analytical cookies help us understand how people are using our websites, so we can improve them and provide a better user experience. We also sometimes get our approved partner companies to analyse how people are using Leeds Beckett Websites and they may set their own analytical cookies in order to do this.
Marketing Cookies
Marketing cookies allow us to provide you with online adverts that are the most relevant and useful for you.
For more information please view our Privacy Policy

Animations & Interaction

The Leeds Beckett University website occasionally uses animations to page elements and animated gifs to add impact to pages. If you wish to stop them from playing for accessibility purposes or for personal preference then please see the guidance below. Please note that browsers sometimes change how they operate, so please refer to your browser help files to find their latest information.
How do I turn off animations?

Chrome

Chrome users will need to use browser extensions. Animation Policy from Google will help you set your own preferences.

Microsoft Edge

There is currently no way to disable animations within Microsoft Edge. Users of Edge (Chromium) browser can install the Chrome extensions above and use them.

Internet Explorer

To stop animations on a single page you can just press the 'Esc' key. This will stop the animation on that page. If you wish to restart the animations you need to refresh the page. To permanently disable the playing of animated GIF images, open Internet Options > Advanced tab. Under the Multimedia section, uncheck the Play animations in webpage check-box, click Apply and Exit and then restart your computer.

Firefox

Type about:config in Firefox address bar and hit Enter to open Settings. Search for the image.animation_mode flag and change its value from Normal to None. Once you restart Firefox this will disable animations.

Carnegie Education

The trials and tribulations of 'Social Distancing'

Having lost my mother to terminal cancer in 2013 the hardest part of Covid-19 is the thought of now losing my 82 year-old father to the virus. The contemplation of what might be is so intense and the uncontrollable and sometimes erratic emotions as a result, should not be underestimated or misunderstood.

Written By

Senior Lecturer in the School

Published on 10 Jun 2020

An empty terraced street, lined with parked cars.

Today, 12 weeks since lockdown, I visited my family for the first time since my son’s 12th birthday in February. It was well worth the annual leave and the hour drive down the M1. My sister, niece, dad, who is fondly referred to by all as ‘Grumpy Grandad’, my son and I managed a short walk. Well that was the intention, we became a bit lost and a four mile route swiftly became a seven mile hike! I was not in charge and can smugly say that my sister found herself, without the geography degree, simply ‘geographically embarrassed’ at times! But in reality, and despite the jibes, it simply added to the fun of an adventurous day out.

For our kids, who are both only children, the impact of lockdown has been immense. They have had no siblings to bounce off, in a positive or negative way. They are demanding of their parents, who are both full-time working mums and have conducted themselves for most of the time in a normal, emotional, underwhelmed and overwhelmed manner. With moods swinging dependant on anything irrational, incomprehensible, ungrounded and therefore completely normal!

We have witnessed hugs, tantrums, proficiency, withdrawal, shouting, calmness, passion, anger, lack of confidence, sensibility, peer pressure and a raft of other emotions. Dependant on our individual workloads, sometimes managed well and at other times perhaps not managed so well!

Today they found their usual sanctuary, and trust, in each other. Their camaraderie is truly amazing and strangely comforting, I feel as a parent it is something that I have yet to fully achieve with him. I found it hard to tear them apart and to commence the journey back home when our normal routine would have been a bottle of wine or two and an overnight stay.

On my way home, with a sleeping navigator, my heart went out to all of you who have struggled through this unprecedented situation and have a raft of difficult family issues to contend with, it is not easy. You are brave, diligent, hard-working, resilient, and beyond all quite simply normal, so please don’t forget that. So, while some are enjoying aspects of lockdown, others are struggling, perhaps just in different ways. It is "OK" to struggle, so remember be kind to yourselves.

For me, with a father who does not have the internet, a computer or a modern mobile phone, today has been one of the most humbling, emotional, yet absolutely enjoyable days of lockdown so far. I also have to admit I did break the lockdown rules to cut my father’s hair, if only to avoid him at 82 looking like the mad professor from ‘Back to the Future’, I did however wash my hands thoroughly afterwards!

Family are everything, lest we forget.