SPSU9W6 – Sports Work Experience (Spring 2020)

I chose this module as it would give me the opportunity to experience the working environment in sport and it would give me skills that I could take into future employment. I keep in touch with staff from my old school and asked about the opportunity to get work experience in the P.E department there. When they got back to me and said they’d be willing to take me on I was delighted. Me and my mentor Chris looked at what days would suit best and decided that a Wednesday worked for both sides. On Wednesday morning, I was nervous before I got into the school as I didn’t know what to expect but my nerves were calmed within ten minutes as all of the staff were very welcoming.

The first class of the day was an S4 class and they were doing basketball. They were looking to improve their positive self-talk therefore I was helping with motivating them to succeed as well as refereeing matches. I enjoyed this as it gave me a chance to help students improve their game and I like to see young people enjoy sports. Next up was a first-year class who were swimming. It was surprising to see that only 8 out of 23 in the class took part, there were numerous excuses for non-participation. It was sad to see so many young people not want to take part in activities as when I look back from my time at school everybody loved taking part in P.E.

During lunch, it felt strange sitting in the staff base with people who were my old teachers but getting involved in all the conversations settled me even more and made me feel like I fit in this environment.

Finally, I was with an S2 class who were doing fitness, this consisted of teams running laps and a competition to see who could do the most laps, I was in charge of counting the laps by each team which was stressful as I needed to keep an eye on everything to make sure I calculated correctly. It was good to see a younger class working hard and enjoying P.E after the disappointment from the swimming class in the morning. As the class worked hard the teacher then let them play dodgeball for the last 20 minutes which everyone enjoyed.

Overall my first day was a success and I enjoyed getting an insight into teaching off of the P.E teachers at the school. I am excited to go back next week and learn more.

My work placement is with the strength and conditioning department with the sports development service at the University of Stirling. My first day was quite intense but very interesting. I Started at 7:30am with an introduction meeting with my mentor Josh. We had a chat about emergency procedures within the gym and what to in the event of an emergency. We also had a quick chat about what we went to get out of the work placement, this involved me writing goals as such and then we will see if we have achieved them by the end of the placement. We also had a chat over what we would be doing on the placement as well as what teams we would be working with.

First session of the day and it was training time with the high performance swimming team. We walked over the strength and conditioning room at Allan Grange and Josh showed me the programme online he uses for programming for his athletes. The programme was called Team Builder. Josh showed me the session for the swimmers and demonstrated the warm up to me and asked if I would like to help take the warm up part. I took the warm up with one of the female swimmers. Josh then explained the session to the swimmers and let them get on with the workout. From there I was observing the way Josh coaching then walked around the room to observe the technique of the athletes whilst doing their session.

After that it was time for a quick break then back into the performance suite to coach the tennis team and then triathlon. Again it was very interesting to see the differences in programming for different sports. An example of this was when programming for tennis, the exercises that were put into the programme were tailored for a lot of rotation in the torso region as that is a major movement when playing tennis.

After this it was time for us to train ourselves. Josh discussed the importance of being a coach and training yourself as you need to practice what you preach. This was also nice as it broke the day up a bit as well as discussing programming over lunch.

After this it was time for the last session of the day working with the 1st’s of the men’s football team.

Day one was a success.

This module interested me as I thought a practical module where I got to engage in sport at some level or another would help to guide me in my future career. Already having experience in gymnastics coaching I thought it would be best for the university to source my placement for me in something out of my comfort zone, so I could push myself to gain some knowledge in a sport which is foreign to me.

I was placed at Coach My Sport with my mentor Tony. Tony and I had exchanged some emails backwards and forwards before having a conversation over the phone about which days would be best for what I want to achieve during my time on placement. He highly recommended that I came on Fridays from 2-6 as during this time, there was a large variety of age groups and activities that would take place. This interested me due to the fact I wanted to gain some experience in a field that I knew nothing about in order to challenge myself and take me out of my comfort zone. The age groups ranged from 3-11-year olds with activities such as dodgeball, cricket, floorball and other activities that targeted different skills such as orientation, eye hand and eye foot, moving and jumping and rhythm and dissociation. While also focussing on different functions and speed. The programmes for coach my sport are progressive and structured that is based in a fun and enjoyable environment. Prior to talking to Tony, I was quite nervous about taking on this placement due to my lack of knowledge, however I was also excited to try something new and throwing myself in the deep end.

Starting from this week I will be participating in Coach My Sport at the Dunblane Community Centre each Friday for four hours. I have been informed that during my first week there is no preparatory work, and no pressure to take part. However, I look forward to going in on my first day and throwing myself into the role as I feel the only way, I will take away a lot from this experience is if I put a lot into it. I am excited to work alongside other coaches and with kids of different ages. Sport has always been a passion of mine and it will be great to coach kids who share that same passion. I’m hoping that this will be an overall pleasant experience that will shape me into a great coach and guide me through my future career. I am really looking forward to getting started.

I was interested in this module because I am undecided on what career I would like to do once I leave university and thought this would be a good way to gain some experience and knowledge in an unfamiliar area of sport.  I also thought it would help hone my employability skills which are very important.

I decided to go with a placement sourced by the university because I felt that if I chose my own then I would not go out with my comfort zone which is something I really wanted to achieve by taking this module.  I was given a placement within University of Stirling sport and had my initial meeting with my mentor on Thursday.  Before this, I was quite nervous as I wasn’t sure what to expect.  My placement involves me helping with the organisation and delivery of a kids camp (primary school age) that will take place in April.  There is a range of sports offered to the kids, one of which is gymnastics which is the sport I participated in.  I hope that I can shadow the gymnastics coach throughout the camp to get a feel of what coaching is like as I have never been in a coaching role before.

Starting next week, I will work on Thursday afternoons to help organise the camp and ensure that everything is on track for the starting date.  I will then assist with the delivery of the camp for 1 of the 2 weeks it runs for.  After speaking about my placement and finding out more about it I feel a lot more comfortable.  I’m really looking forward to working with the kids and can hopefully encourage them to participate in sport outwith the camp as sports are so beneficial for many things in life.

I’m really excited to get started and hope it will be an enjoyable experience.

While studying the Sports Studies degree programme I have become increasingly aware of the positive impact of sport and physical activity within society and, as a result, have been inspired to pursue a career in PE teaching. This has led to me applying to study PE teaching as a postgraduate course. I chose to undertake the work experience module as it presented an opportunity for me to apply the theory I have learned to a practical working environment and in doing so to become better equipped to take on further placement and working roles.

My placement was determined through the university and I was allocated to Active Stirling under Natalie Wilson. On my initial meeting with Natalie we discussed my desire to gain experience working within a secondary school PE setting and she suggested that she would put me in contact with one of her colleagues who work alongside the secondary schools within the Stirling area. Shortly after this I was contacted by Hazel Dean who is the Active Schools coordinator for Dunblane High School. Hazel informed me that Dunblane High are happy to take me on as a volunteer within the PE department and so I have arranged to meet both Hazel and some of the PE staff at the school on the 6^th of February to discuss how I will complete the placement.

While I have previous experience of working within schools this has all been done within Glasgow City Council and the vast majority has been with primary school pupils. As such I am very excited to have the opportunity to carry out my placement within Dunblane High as this will give me more of a chance to work with secondary school pupils and will provide an invaluable opportunity to network and establish myself with different organisations. I am hoping to complete my placement as a series of full or half day sessions as this would allow me to develop a better understanding of how a PE department operates throughout the duration of a school day and experience working with different age groups and delivering different activities.

I am really looking forward to meeting the PE staff within the school next week, and by my next blog update am intending to have begun my placement at Dunblane High.

I decided to choose this module as my future career aspiration is to become a Physical Education teacher. However, I felt that before committing to applying for a position in a postgraduate course for physical education teacher training, it was important to get practical experience within an school so I could get a feel for if the position was really for me.

To say I was delighted when I got allocated Wallace High School would be an understatement. I was on study abroad when I submitted the pre placement documentation, so due to the time difference I had to ensure that documents and communication between Romie and myself was efficient and submitted with plenty of time. I unfortunately could not apply for placement in my home town high school, due to the fact it is more than a 2 hour drive and a half hour ferry trip away so wouldn’t have been the most plausible of options.

As soon as I was allocated my placement and my mentor Rachel Whillans, I made contact via email almost immediately, being quite keen to get started. Rachel suggested coming into the school the following Tuesday to which I agreed and went along to. Initially, I felt nervous before going into the school but these nerves soon faded as Rachel and Colin Burke (head of PE at Wallace high) made me feel more than welcome and were both very easy to get along with. They gave me a tour of the school and asked me if I had any expectations of what I wanted from the experience, explaining that I just really wanted hands on experience in a school and to see if the job was truly for me.

They also suggested that I should potentially look into starting a netball club at lunch times for the girls and they had been asking about one and none of the staff had played before. I plan to look to see if there would be any interest in that once I begin placement. Rachel also emailed me a proposed plan for Tuesdays (the day in which we agreed to start with (complimenting my timetable very well). The classes will give me a vast variety of insight into a day in the life of a PE teacher, with classes ranging from senior football to core health and wellbeing.

I am hoping to get started next week, I cannot wait to begin and hope that this experience improves my confidence, ability to teach and confirms that this career path is something I want to seriously consider.

Over the last two weeks I have contacted my mentor Graeme Matheson (sports development officer at the university) about my placement on the work experience module. My placement involves the main running and hosting of the Campus 5K and Dumyat Hill Race (Two very big university events). I met up with Graeme where he gave me a quick overlook a number of things which are involved with this placement such as such as staff and volunteer recruitment and development, finical planning, promotion of events and logistics. I have now been added to a box folder where we keep the planning and to do list on an excel spread sheet. I have picked a number of tasks to do over the next month which include the emailing and gaining of sponsorships for the events such as big food and nutrition companies, increasing student engagement and recruitment of volunteers. Graeme has been excellent with me in making it clear what he expects and needs from me throughout this placement and made relationships very easy and flowing, this has made me settle into the role very quick and I am now looking forward to getting properly started. Furthermore I think my previous experience of organising events both at school and university has helped me feel more assured however, my new role is of a much bigger size and it is a challenge which I look forward to.

I am looking forward to starting the role properly and feel it will be great for my widening my development. I chose this module as it provides a work based learning approach in the real world which most other modules fail to provide. I feel this will be an enjoyable module and placement and one which will enhance my experience and CV for post university life.

For my next blog I hope to have progressed into emailing and beginning relationships with companies for prizes and sponsorships of the events, along with being a part of the student engagement for both races. This will be done by myself drafting a letter/email of interest to the sponsor and Graeme giving feedback if my proposal to the companies is of good standard for representing the university.

After reading the description of the module during the module selection I knew this was the best module for me. It is a way for me to improve vital skills which can help me after my degree.

I have connections with my old high school PE department and the active school’s coordinator. I thought it would do no harm to email and ask if they would need a spare pair of hands, to which my Active School’s Coordinator was more than happy to take me on. I have previously gone to a sports coaching academy which was ran by my mentor so I already felt comfortable with her.

Going to the first meeting to get my pre-placement documents filled out felt very surreal as I was back in my old high school, not as a pupil but as a student volunteer. I was not anxious to get my documents signed as I was familiar with the environment and the people.

Wednesday 29^th of January was the first day of my placement where I was able to observe and shadow my mentor during a lunchtime club and an after school club. Each club took place in different primary schools, highlighting how strenuous it is to be an Active School’s Coordinator (she was at another school before the lunch club).

Initially, walking into a new environment was quite nerve-racking but as soon as I saw my mentor I felt at ease. The lunchtime club took place in Bothwell Primary School and had 35 Primary 2 pupils (yes it was very loud in there), there was six primary 7 pupils who are young sports leaders helping out too. The number of pupils was overwhelming at first but once I got used to it, I felt keen and ready to go. The after-school club took place at Muiredge Primary School had 15 Primary 4 pupils. There was also another student helping out from UWS, which calmed my nerves as I knew her from when we went to the same dance club when we were younger and that she was on the same boat as me.

Next week, I will have to consider the difference in skill level from the primary 2s and primary 4s as it is quite significant. With the primary 4s being able to play full games of basketball and the primary 2s playing different versions of tig.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience and loved getting to know everyone. I am excited to see what next week has to bring!

I choose to take the work experience module in my final year as I felt it was going to give me more experience and would help me stand out more when I was looking for a job. On the initial meeting I got more information on the work experience module and what would be involved, I also got to decide if I wanted to find my own placement or select which one I would be interested in. I decided to choose my placement from a list provided in the session. I put my name down for a placement which was through in Dunblane as I wanted to have experience working in an environment I did not know.

My work experience is with coach my sport and it involves a variety of different sports, allowing the children to develop a range of different skills and try out different sports in a fun and enjoyable environment. They run a coaching programme for 3 – 11 year olds (which is multi skill learning) which is adapted for different levels. Another programme, involving dodge-ball, cricket and floor-ball, is delivered for children aged 7 – 12.

On my first visit, I met with my mentor Tony, who showed me around the Dunblane centre where most of the activities take place. He explained to me how sessions were run and all the different sports they offered, and other things that went on in the building. We discussed which days I would be able to attend and what times were suitable.  As I was not too sure on how floor-ball was ran and the rules of it, my mentor suggested I go along to one of the sessions which takes place at Dunblane High School and delivered by another university student. I enjoyed being shown around and hearing of what I would be getting involved in.

In the second seminar, it was explained what was expected of me in this module,what I was required to do and what assignment I would have to complete. This module is going to help me more experience for after I graduate this year.

I have just started my placement today in Airdrie Academy working with the P.E department, shadowing different teachers in a range of classes from 1st to 4th year.  This morning I was working alongside Mr.Gibb getting some 4th year pupils to focus on the skills they will be doing in their graded unit for national 5.  The pupils were mainly focusing on either Badminton or Basketball which meant from my previous work experience in Active Schools, I was able to get stuck right in and help out where needed.  The second period on my timetable was with 3rd years which was with another member of the P.E department carrying out target skills. I was able to partake in demonstrations and show the pupils correct techniques in Badminton. Throughout the rest of the day I was just helping out where needed and got to know more of my colleagues better.

Next week I would ideally like to start looking at developing lesson plans and try to lead a class. The head of the P.E department is allowing me to do this for one of my 2nd year classes which involves Gymnastics, so hopefully this goes well and continues throughout the next couple of weeks. I already have a good relationship with most of the teachers in the department as this is where I went to school, however there are also new teachers, including two students from Stirling University that have done Sport Studies previously. Therefore, it is good to get their insight into teaching P.E classes and how they went about the whole process after their degree.

After only one day at my work experience I have gained good experience already and I am looking forwad to going back next week. I believe that this particular placement will give me the experience that I need to help build my confidence in teaching classes and dealing with a range of abilities.