The final part of my placement has been taking weekly dance sessions in two of the cluster primary schools, Riverside primary and Fallin Primary. This for me has been where I have thrived as dance coaching is something I have done for many years and is completely within my comfort zone so with these sessions I was able to relax and take control over them. Craig has been so supportive with me over these sessions and has gave me his full trust over leading them which has made me feel very encouraged to do well.

The Riverside Primary sessions were at lunchtime which made me a bit anxious as I wasn’t sure if the kids would be willing to give up their lunchtimes to come to dance club. However, I was completely shocked as in the first week 35 pupils showed up for the session which I wasn’t expecting at all. As weeks have went on the club has continued to stay busy and the pupils have shown great enthusiasm towards the sessions.

The Fallin Primary sessions were after school and these were slightly different as they encourage parent participation. The classes were quieter in the first week, there was eight kids and three parents, I think this could have been down to the fact it was a Friday afternoon. However, the parents and kids spread the word and the numbers did increase over the weeks. I felt a bit more anxious going into these sessions as I knew parents were going to be involved and I wasn’t sure how well they would take to them but the parents were a lot of fun and really encouraged the kids. If anything I think the kids actually tried harder as they knew their parents were watching them. This also helped as if there were any behavioural issues in the group the parents would deal with it and there was never a need for me to discipline the kids.

-Rebecca

On Friday we returned to the peak for another event, this time it was a Boccia Festival for children and teenagers with disabilities. I had some experience of boccia from the previous event I did with Active Stirling but on arrival Craig asked if I would be able to referee the games which straight away filled me with nerves as I wasn’t 100% on the rules of the game. However, there was a boccia coach at the event who sat us down before the games and went over the rules of the game with us which made us feel very at ease.

The games ran really smoothly and all the children seemed to be having a lot of fun. The event began with 1vs1 tournaments to which was narrowed down to semi-finals and finals and then there were team events giving the opportunity for different schools to compete. The work that Craig does in his role as an inclusion officer at Active Stirling and the Work of Sport Disability Scotland is absolutely amazing and having the opportunity to be a part of these great events has been extremely rewarding for me.

After the event I went along with Craig to Wallace High School where he oversees a programme called Sports Unite. The idea of the programme is to have the pupils of the school come into a sport session of the Additional Support Needs students and to get involved with sports with them and play with them or even just simply chill out and listen to music to encourage participation in sport. The ASN pupils have different lunch times to the other pupils so the session took part after the ASN pupils lunch which was during the other pupils lunch. Due to this I wasn’t expecting a lot of pupils to come as in past experiences I have found lunchtime clubs to not be very busy especially in high schools. The turnout from the other pupils was amazing there must have been about 30 of them in the hall, most of them were there before the ASN pupils and ate their lunch quickly in the hall so that they could join in with the sports. This experience of the Sports Unite programme was a very positive and enlightening one, it was amazing to see how many of the pupils got involved to help the other ASN pupils.

At the event last week I spoke with Craig and we discussed some opportunities that I would be interested. I showed my interest in dance and gymnastics coaching  and he said he would try and arrange some sessions for me to lead. Following on from our discussion Craig has contacted me regarding dance sessions for two schools over a six week period. The first school is Riverside Primary School and will take place on Wednesdays in the school and the second is Fallin Primary School which will take place on Fridays in The Alpha Centre.

Both groups of children will be aged primary 5-7. I am really looking forward to delivering these sessions as I believe it is something I am confident with and will be really good at. I am so grateful to be given the opportunity to do something that I love. I do have slightly anxious feelings towards the thoughts of will the classes be busy? will they like the way I structure the classes? will they have fun? I am going to try and not let these thoughts consume me too much and try and stay positive.

In addition to these sessions Craig has also gave us a few upcoming event opportunities. There are two events coming up in November working with Sport Disability Scotland. I am now feeling less stressed about the fact that I won’t be able to get my hours completed thanks to the opportunities Craig has offered me. I was really worried that I was running out of time due to my PVG taking a few weeks to come but now that I have my PVG and my sessions and events have been organised I feel very relieved. I am now in a position where I feel I can now relax and enjoy the experience.

My PVG finally came back so I was able to volunteer at the Parasport Festival at The Peak. The event was for children and teenagers from primary one to sixth year that had disabilities and gave them the opportunity to get involved in some sports. The sports included badminton, boccia, athletics, football, curling and swimming.

I was placed with the red team and we went to badminton first. At badminton I played with a girl called Lexi and we done some fun badminton drills with balloons and soft balls, from this she then built confidence to use a shuttle cock and her shots started to really improve, she was so proud of herself.

We then moved around as a group and participated in the different sports that were on offer. Every sport had alternative methods for each disability. For example, in athletics for the long jump for those who were in a wheelchair instead of jumping would see how far their wheelchair could go in one big push. My favourite sport was the curling, despite the fact it was absolutely freezing we got to join in with the kids and play games. It was fun to be on the ice and the kids really enjoyed it.

Me having a shot at Curling

At the end of the day for the last 20 minutes there was a Q & A with two parasport athletes. The athletes shared their experiences and discussed some of their achievements which included Olympic medals. A part of their talk which really struck me was that they shared that they never had any opportunities to participate in sport when growing up and both were unable to participate in PE in school. I found it very enlightening when reflecting on the day and seeing how many opportunities there are for children and young people with disabilities compared to 20/30 years ago.

My classmates and I with Craig and the Parasport Athletes

Overall the day was a great experience and I walked away feeling very educated and enlightened on disability sports.

My mentor Craig emailed last week with a few event options for us that Active Stirling are running.  The first event is the Central Parasport Event taking place at the Peak on the 23rd of October (this Wednesday) which is being organised by Scottish Disability Sport as well as Active Stirling. The second event that was offered to me is the Stirling Boccia Festival also taking place at the Peak on the 8th of November and also being organised by Scottish Disability Sport and Active Stirling. The role at both of these events would be an ‘Event Assistant’.

Unfortunately, I am unable to make the Stirling Boccia Festival due to uni commitments but I replied to Craig letting him know that I would be very keen on attending the Central Parasport Event. I think this event will be a great start to my work placement with Active Stirling as it seems like a really fun event which will be busy giving me the opportunity to work with and meet new people. I am thankful that these opportunities have also been given to my classmates that are on placement with Active Stirling as it means I am able to communicate and share my thoughts and feelings with them, it is encouraging to know they are experiencing the same feelings as me. I think working as an Event Assistant will be really fun and I am definitely going to put my all into the role and be as helpful to Craig and the other organisers/staff as I can be.

I am weary however as I am still awaiting confirmation that my upgraded PVG has returned. If it is not returned by Wednesday I will be unable to volunteer at the event which would be a great shame as it seems like a really great opportunity which I would love to do. I am going to get in contact with Craig to double check this and hopefully it will work out.

Following on from my PVG being sent away to be updated last week I am still waiting on Craig getting back to me to say it has returned so as of yet I have not been able to start my placement.

In Fridays seminar last week Romie set us the task of career planning and taught us on how to be able to reflect. She gave us out booklets in which we used the session to work through. The first page contained a structure of our life from birth until now and we had to write what our most successful moment has been in our life so far. For me this was being accepted into University after failing to be accepted when I first applied when leaving school. When I got knocked back from University when I first applied it was a massive confidence knock for me and I constantly thought that I wasn’t good enough or smart enough. I also have a twin sister who had gotten accepted into the University courses that I went for as well so this made it even more difficult for me and put a lot of pressure on me. As I didn’t get accepted anywhere I worked full-time for a year instead, I gained a job as an assistant development officer which made me realise I really wanted to work within the sport development industry and gave me great experience in which I believe helped me to get into university when I applied the next year.

When reflecting on this during the seminar it made me feel really proud of myself and how far along I have came. Thinking back to how demotivated and upset I felt about not getting in to now looking at myself as a third year sport student at Stirling made me feel really good about myself and motivated me to try and do well.

-Rebecca

I was glad to find out that at our first seminar we were going to be meeting our mentor from Active Stirling, Craig. This was something that I had felt stressed about  in the weeks before starting back at uni as I had many thoughts running through my head about my mentor; will it be difficult for me to reach out to them? Will they not be keen in having me in? Will I not be able to build a relationship with them? So having my mentor contact the university to come in and meet us was a great relief and put me at ease straight away.

When Craig came in to our seminar in week 1 he told us a bit about his background and work experience which was all very interesting and highly motivational. After class he stayed behind to talk to the students in which would be on placement with Active Stirling and told us of the work opportunities  that he could offer us which included some lunch time clubs and mentioned some events also. He was very keen in finding out which sports we would be interested in ourselves and from this suggested some of the clubs and events they had running in which we would maybe be interested in. From the first meeting with Craig I automatically felt much more relaxed about my placement and was very exited to get started. Craig’s enthusiasm and drive in coming to meet us on his own accord and getting to know us was a massive confidence boost for me and highly motivational.

Within a few days from the first seminar Craig got in contact with us to notify us that he would be coming in to visit us again after our second seminar and asked that we could provide a copy of our passport, driving licence and another proof of address. He also had us complete a PVG update form and a volunteer form, he was very helpful in helping me to complete these as I was unsure with some of it. Unfortunately, I was unsure of my PVG number but Craig informed me that I would just need to phone up the Scottish Disclosure number and I would be able to receive this in which I did.

Craig has informed me that my update on my PVG should take about two weeks and then I will be ready to take on opportunities with Active Stirling. I am very much looking forward to it.