During my first day of my work experience placement shadowing Active Schools Coordinator, Fraser, I had the opportunity to be involved in different aspects of sports development. I found each situation I worked in allowed me to interact with a new group of people, offered new challenges and a chance to develop my knowledge, something I thoroughly enjoyed.

If I had to select my highlight from my first day it would be typing the minutes for the Leadership meeting with Active Schools Coordinators and Physical Education and Physical Activity in School Sport (PEPASS) representatives. I was very surprised yet excited about this opportunity as this was the first meeting I had attended and was not expecting to be given such a significant role. Through this opportunity I learned that my listening skills were required and that I must have the confidence to be able to speak up – where appropriate – to clarify points. I found this quite challenging as I usually take the lead in topically discussions and I had lots of thoughts and perspectives that I was eager to share. My critical thinking was also put into use as I needed to be able to analyse the information and determine the necessary points to be recorded. This is a skill I need to continue to work on as there was a lot of discussion surrounding a variety of themes. This experience showed me the organisation and reflection that goes into meetings within Active Schools.

In the afternoon, I was coaching a P7 mixed gender basketball team in the East End of Glasgow. I felt very prepared and comfortable about this session as I have been a multi-sport coach for the preceding 6 years. However, I soon observed that the team seemed to become very frustrated with each other whenever a mistake was made by a player. I was surprised when this was reoccurring as the team have been together for a year now. This experience taught me that although my role of the coach is to improve the players basketball skills and knowledge, I also have the chance to influence the young people’s attitudes, outlook on life and how to treat each other with respect which I feel very grateful to have the opportunity to do. What I will do differently in my next session is use appropriate interaction strategies to support communication among the team. For example, I will implement some team building exercises as well as implementing a team ‘cheer’ to build team chemistry and moral. I have learned that young people are still learning about social interaction and standards, however, they are more adaptable than adults as they are still discovering who they are and their perspectives.

Next week I will take forward my reflections from my first day at my placement and use them to learn and develop. I look forward to learning more about the sports development industry, pushing myself out my comfort zone and taking on new challenges and opportunities.