SPSU9W6 – Sports Work Experience (Spring 2020)

I have always been eager to gain work experience throughout my time at Stirling University and due to this I felt this module was an ideal choice. I have wanted to be a physical education teacher since I left high school and this module is giving me the chance to gain some experience of what it’s like on the job. I have sourced my own placement for the module and will be working with the P.E. department at Glasgow High School which is relatively close to where I live and luckily my mum used to work there so could put me in initial contact with the school. I am looking forward to helping here over the next few months.

I have been in contact with the school for a couple of months and agreed to split the hours up over Mondays and Tuesdays beginning on the 17^th of February. I am hoping this placement will help me on my way to securing a postgrad in secondary P.E. teaching. I will mainly be working with classes in 1^st to 3^rd year and will also be helping with some upper school core sessions. I’ve also offered to help with any of the school football teams as I played football for years and it’s something that interests me so ill also hopefully be involved in that.

The school has a well run department and offers a variety of different sports to their pupils some which I am familiar with from my own time at school such as football, basketball, badminton and hockey and others which I am unfamiliar with like tennis, rugby and netball. I am looking forward to learning about these different sports and working in an environment like which I’ll hopefully be working in when I leave university. I am grateful for the experience this module offers and am looking forward to getting started.

After a stressful couple of weeks of trying to get my placement and PVG sorted whilst still recovering from a broken leg I finally had my first day of placement at Queen Margaret Academy. Due to me being in a cast I found it hard to meet up with my placement provider as I was unable to leave the house unless someone was able to drive me to and from the school. After eventually getting all the forms filled out by the PE department I then had to sort my PVG which I filled out and took into South Ayrshire Council. After about two weeks the Council phoned me telling me they couldn’t process my application as I needed to apply for it through my placement provider, which only lengthened the process which was very frustrating.

On my first day of placement I had to shadow one of the P.E teachers who happens to be someone I went to school with which made the whole experience a whole lot easier and made me feel more comfortable. Throughout the day I contributed to each lesson either through helping the teacher or actually taking the session myself. Throughout the day I coached a variety of sports such as Football, Volleyball, Hockey and Badminton to a variety of different year groups.

For next week, I have been asked to plan and prepare sessions of my own where I will take classes on my own with the teacher there to assist me if needed. I have planned a couple of Football sessions for both 1st years and 4th years whilst also planning a volleyball session for 6th Years. Although I am nervous to take the sessions on my own I am also excited as it will give me more confidence for coaching in the future.

I started my work experience placement with North Lanarkshire’s Active Schools on the 22nd of January and was very nervous to meet those I would be working with, but was almost immediately put at ease by how welcoming everyone was and even to see some familiar faces also.

My first task was a visit to New Monkland Primary School (My old primary school) to run a supervised basketball session. I was nervous before this club as basketball is a sport I do not have a lot of experience with however, the pupils at the club and the staff supervising made me feel more confident and helped me throughout the session even when I was running out of ideas the supervisor was always there to keep me on the right path. This session was a great learning experience as it showed me that there is a lot more to coaching than just setting drills and shouting out instructions to a group of pupils.

Since this session I have had three more sessions (one of which was basketball and two of which were tennis). The basketball session was at the same school as above and went far better than the first week as I was more prepared for what I was about to face, I had a lesson plan and ideas of how to adapt it if the lesson was too hard or too easy which kept me at ease throughout the session. The two tennis session were at Clarkston Primary School which I had never been at before but the teachers and pupils helped me so much to get used to the school and settle in very quickly. The two tennis sessions were definitely more of a success than the basketball sessions in terms of how the sessions were ran however, I have learned more about myself as a coach during the two basketball sessions because they were not plain sailing and definitely took me out of my comfort zone which I am often reluctant to leave.

All in all, I have definitely settled in well at NL Active School’s and I am looking forward to what comes next.

I chose this particular module as this is our final semester and upon completing my degree in Sports Studies here at University of Stirling it would be beneficial to gain some sporting work experience that I can use for my future. I feel like this is a brilliant opportunity to throw myself into some situations where I can learn about myself and the job involved.

After receiving my email with details of my supervisor I contacted Natalie Wilson straight away. She is a member of Active Stirling and I was excited as this opens a lot of sporting opportunities. Once I met with Natalie, she was extremely enthusiastic and asked me about what kind of thing I wanted to do after my degree. I informed her that I have applied and have interviews for a postgraduate Primary Teaching course. This was a perfect fit for Natalie as she works 3 days a week in a local school. Straight away we both agreed this would be the perfect fit for me to shadow and gain valuable experience helping with lunch sports clubs and more. This would give me even more experience which I could use within my upcoming interview’s, so I was thrilled.

Natalie sent me away with my PVG forms to fill out and to soon meet again to get the application for a PVG process underway. I met the second time with Natalie and was unsure about some of the questions the form had asked, and she helped me fill out the rest.

I am meeting Natalie for an introduction on Monday 3^rd February to shadow her and see what the school offers during lunchtime sporting activities. I am extremely eager and excited to start this placement as it will give me an insight to what my job will one day involve.

I made it clear to Natalie that I was interested in the teaching side of delivering sessions and helping out with the activities the children at the school would take part in. Once my PVG gets approved I hope to take more a leading role to put myself into the deep end and out of my comfort zone.

By choosing this module I am hoping to gain a valuable insight into work in the world of sport, and after being placed with Active Stirling I definitely feel I will gain this. I very much look forward to my upcoming experiences, testing myself through working in an unknown environment and generally taking myself outside of my comfort zone – something which I will likely have to do in almost every future workplace.

Shortly after I received news of my placement, I contacted my mentor Craig McIntyre and arranged to meet at the PEAK Sports Centre. Initially I was quite nervous on my way to meeting him, as obviously I didn’t know who to be looking for, nor what was going to be asked. However, almost as soon as I arrived we clocked each other and introduced ourselves. Straight away, Craig made me feel at ease and any nerves I had before went away pretty quickly.

Previous to my meeting with Craig, I had met with Natalie Wilson, another member of the Active Stirling team, in class where she gave me and the other students on placement with the organisation a flavour of what to expect in different roles. From this brief meeting with Natalie I half knew what to expect when I met with Craig which made it slightly easier for me. Craig explained to me that his ‘cluster’ involved a few Primary schools in and around Stirling, as well as being responsible for inclusion at Wallace High – involving children with additional support needs – something which I have never been involved with before.

Craig also detailed that on placement I could be responsible for delivering sessions to pupils at his schools, as well as gaining experience in working at different events Active Schools have coming up in the near future. Having previously completed some volunteering delivering sessions for Active Schools back home, I informed Craig I would perhaps like to gain a bit more experience on the events side – especially after hearing the work he himself had been involved in during major events.

Over the next couple of weeks I hope to begin my placement once my PVG application has been approved, and I am looking forward to the new and valuable experiences I will gain throughout.

When I was choosing my modules for fourth year I was sceptical about doing a work placement module. I was unsure if I would get a placement that I would enjoy, however, I decided to chose this module with the hope it would provide me with more insight into a potential career path after university.

Unfortunately I missed the first seminar of this module due to a concussion from playing rugby. I found this frustrating as it put me behind early on in the module, however, since this I feel like I have been able to catch up.

My placement for this semester is working with the Stirling university sports centre. When I found this out I was excited because I have been able to work with the university sports centre before and I enjoyed these experiences. My placement Supervisor is Amy Beatie and on Friday the 24th of January I had an introduction meeting with her. I had met Amy before this meeting, but this was the first opportunity I had to have a conversation with her and we got on well. During this meeting I found out my placement will be focused around the 6-a-side an 11-a-side intramural football competitions run at the university. This got me excited as I have participated in both the 6-a-side and 11-a-side tournaments during my first and second year, I know how it is run and how much fun it is to be a part of.

Amy described the responsibilities that I will be given for the purposes of this placement, these included organising referees for the matches being played, attending the thursday night 6-a-side fixtures to manage the event, taking photos and videos of the events to develop the social media presence of the intramural football competition. Amy also highlighted to me the popularity of the 6-a-side tournament compared to the 11-a-side tournament. Therefore, on top of the responsibilities described above, I may also be challenged with trying to encourage people to participate in the 11-a-side weekend league.

Overall, I am looking forward to this placement opportunity. I hope to develop skills that I can translate into future jobs and hopefully contribute something new to the intramural football tournament at Stirling and grow the competition. I am hoping to improve my blogging skills through the duration of this module, making each post more insightful and interesting.

I was originally supposed to take this module in the first seminar as it was one of the most appealing course options which was on offer, however due to me being unorganised I fell short and ran out of time when applying and was told I would need to wait until the second semester.

Now that I have an opportunity to take this module in the 2^nd semester I am really excited to see what I can learn and how can I use this module to further my own knowledge and understanding of what it takes to be able to work within the sport sector of employment.

So far, I’ve been to both seminars and gained a little more knowledge into what I will actually be doing over the semester. Due to the seminars I have gained a lot more insight into what the course entails as well as what is expected of me and the sort of work that I will need to do. In turn this has made me extremely motivated to try my best to complete all coursework before deadlines as well as produce work that will gain me the best marks possible, as I feel that by doing well in this module it can open many employment opportunities especially within the sport sector.

I have also personally met Craig McIntyre, my mentor for this work experience module. We met at the peak sports facilities in Stirling in order to sort out my PVG. Not only did we sort out my PVG, but Craig gave me an insider’s perspective into what it is like to work for active schools as well as many of the jobs he has undertaken in his role. Everything Craig told me I found really interesting and has definitely motivated me to try my best as I would personally like to pursue a career in the sports industry. Therefore, through Craig’s personal experiences I know I will need to put in a lot of work in order to have a career in the industry I have the greatest interest in.

I am now in the waiting process for my PVG application to be accepted so I can start my placement. I am fully motivated as well as excited to get started.

I was excited to start my placement as it is very similar to what I want to do after university. I had emailed my mentor during week 1 of semester to arrange a meeting to chat about the placement. My mentor was very helpful, I felt comfortable in the environment. She showed me around the facility and arranged a date for my start.

Upon starting my placement, I was confident as I already work in a gym that has an exercise referral programme, so I had a rough idea on what to expect and how to work with clients. I was nervous about small details such as what to take with me, what to wear and where to find the other staff members I was working with and meeting them for the first time. On my first day, I entered the gym and my mentor wasn’t there so I had to find other staff to direct me to the right people which was slightly nerve wracking in case they didn’t know I was coming or wasn’t as keen as my mentor to have me working with them. My nerves were quickly settled as I found out the other staff I would be working alongside had previously been employed at my current workplace and were very welcoming.

I shadowed 2 classes and a short 9-week review, the first class was a stroke specific which was interesting seeing the interaction from people at different stages in their recovery and learning how to scale exercises up and down I took part in some of the class. I met the participants who happily shared recovery stories with me and how the scheme has helped them which fuelled my motivation to get involved as I am passionate about physical activity for treatment of ill health. The second class was with a different staff member who was also friendly. The class was less specific and open to anyone with any condition. This class was lot bigger and I was needed to set up equipment and help participants with technique and choosing their weights. This was good as I got to get involved and use my skills. I got chatting with the staff about my work and he gave me some information on jobs and good courses to add to my cv. I am returning next week for different classes and to shadow programming.

This is actually my second time taking a work experience module at the university and I am filled with excitement for this one. My previous work experinece that I carried out didn’t go completley to plan and there were several issues along the way. Although this wasn’t the outcome I would have hoped for or expected it was equally as important for my own personal development and learning. This has left me keen to make the most of this experience and make it work to its upmost potential to futher my own development and provide an opportunity to those that I am working/coaching with.

So this week I have started to put into place my work experience placement with Active Stirling. This week I met with my placement supervisor Craig McIntyre at the Peak to get the ball rolling with regards to PVG applications and organizing other paperwork in order to carry out my placement. So far we haven’t put any concrete plans into place as to what my role will be but so far the brief discussions have all pointed towards setting up a cricket coaching camp/club in a local primary school.

Craig so far has been excellent in letting me know what needs done in order to make this a successful placement as well as offering other volunteering opportunities which can both be enjoyable but importantly enhance my sporting/working CV.

Cricket is something I am extremely passionate about and to hear that local primary schools in Scotland and Stirling are wanting cricket coaches into their schools to deliver sessions really excites me. It shows a growth and development in the sport in which I have participated in for many years and this work experience provides me a possible opportunity to be part of it.

It has been a quiet week mostly with regards to actually carrying out my placement, and is somewhat frustrating as I am eager to get into the schools and get this project going- however I understand that background checks are so important when working with children so for the time being I will be waiting with anticipation.
My aims for the next blog post will be to have a further understanding of exactly what I will be carrying out and hopefully to have all the paperwork sorted so that once this is all done I can hit the ground running when I am able to start