The first thing I have started to realise about placement is how tiring the days can be, to make it to Armadale for 9am I have to leave my house at 6:30am!! It is around1.5 hours on the train and 1.5 back. Although the days are long it’s a great visual as to what full-time work as a teacher can be like. Hayley picked me up at the station as usual, we discussed if I would be comfortable including two more young girls within my lunch time group, I was so excited that more girls wanted to be part of the lunch time club and voluntarily approached Hayley with their interest.

My day was to be very similar to my previous Monday, the same classes as I had already created good relationships with some of the pupils within those classes. I really enjoyed assisting with the swimming lesson 2nd period, swimming is something I am confident in so assisting with the lesson and leading games came naturally to me, I taught swimming lessons during my time working in America, so it was great to be able to use my skill set again.

During my lunch time group the active school co-ordinator was interested in sitting in and seeing how the group worked and what she could do to help. The two new girls arrived, unfortunately the two girls from last week didn’t show up but we proceeded with the group anyway, we played table tennis and football with the girls and spoke about P.E and there experiences within the subject, it’s a surreal feeling being on the other side now as I remember so distinctively being that young person. It is something which I will always utilise, so I can relate to young people and share my experiences of how sport and P.E can be used to change lives.

The last period of the day was a really interesting one, Hayley had mentioned that only one teacher in the school got an “excellent” rating on their OFSTED report, I was really keen on seeing this teacher teach, even though it wasn’t going to be within P.E. Olivea is a modern languages teacher who teaches French and Spanish, he agreed to allow me to sit in on his lesson with his higher French group. Seeing him teach was an amazing learning experience for me, he utilised technology as well as creating a humorous and safe environment for the pupils, from observing the lesson every single pupil was working and engaging within the class, even when technology was involved nobody was distracted and it was obvious the pupils had a massive amount of respect from him. Speaking with him afterwards was really interesting, it’s really important to be able to see different teaching techniques especially within different subjects.

Next week is half term so I will not be able to attend placement. however I am excited to get back to Armadale on the 28th of October.