SPSU9W6 – Sports Work Experience (Spring 2020)

I thought this module sounded great and an ideal way to get some experience in P.E teaching so that I feel more confident when going on to do a post-grad (Hopefully). After being given more information from the pre-module session and pre-placement forms I thought it was best to arrange my own placement for the module. I contacted my old high schools P.E department to see if I could go there to do my placement. They agreed this was fine as I already have a PVG in place. My placement is St Peter the Apostle high school in Clydebank. I met up with the head of the P.E department Mr McMurray and a teacher Ms Dent to discuss which days, hours would be best suited and what I would be doing within the placement. We came to the agreement that 30 hours would be best spread over five full days. So, I have planned to go in on Mondays and Fridays, beginning on the 31^st January. I have planned to work with pupils ranging from S1 – S4 with a variety of the P.E departments teachers which feels strange because some of them taught me but this will probably help me feel more comfortable when beginning the placement, although there are some new faces so it’ll be good to meet new people. I have also been invited to go along to the after-school netball club and to go with the 6^th year students to carry out their sports leader’s programme coaching primary schools in West Dunbartonshire – this sounds like it would be fun if it fits in with my schedule. We also looked over some lesson plans so I could get a rough idea of what was happening and from what we discussed the first day I will probably just shadow staff and help with various things. After this I’ll be taking small groups within the class to do sessions and probably take warm-ups, cool downs and anything else that is necessary. We also discussed the possibility of me working with a girl who is in a wheelchair. Due to my job experience of being a support worker for key community supports where I mainly work with people with disabilities this would be an ideal situation but it will depend on which days she has P.E but I would be more than happy to work with her.

I was really excited to get started with this module. After the pre-module session where we were given some more information and knowledge on what kind of placements we could do, I knew I wanted to try and get one in a school.

I had contacts for a few high school PE departments near me, however I chose to go with my old high school. I thought it would be good to experience the school from a teaching point of view rather than just a pupil. As it has been some time since I was at school, the teachers in the department have changed slightly, meaning my placement is still allowing me to meet new people. By doing my placement in my old school, it allows me to still remain comfortable and confident as I have been in the environment before.

Once I contacted my school and got confirmation that I would be allowed to undergo my placement there, I had a meeting with my mentor to complete my pre-placement forms. We discussed when I should start placement and what days would work best. In order to get the best experience, we decided on varying my days week by week. This means that I will attend placement on different days and times every week, allowing me to be involved in different PE classes. I also had a chat about what type of interesting project I could do. I have decided to report on what type of activities young people prefer to participate in during PE, and what they would like to experience. I will do this through questionnaires. By doing this, it allows for teachers to plan efficiently and give young people the best opportunities in PE.

I attended my first placement session on the 14^th of January. It was a very enjoyable experience. As it was my first time, I met all staff I would be working with. I was able to observe and shadow the teachers. The first class I was in was a 1^st year short tennis class. They focused on controlling the ball and getting the perfect hit every time. The next class was another 1^st year class, focusing on passing drills in different sports. This was an enjoyable class as there were different things happening at the same time, making pupils think of the sport and what the different aims of the games were.

So far within the Work Experience module, I have contacted my mentor and attended the first seminar. I have known my mentor for several years now, as he was previously my high school physical education teacher. This has made me even more excited to start my placement as I will be back in an environment I am familiar with, but looking at it from a different perspective. Due to already having the email of my mentor, I found it quite easy to contact him and with him knowing who I am he replied fairly quickly. The discussion about when I would carry out my work experience was simple and didn’t cause any problems as the week he suggested for me to go was perfect for me. I am very relieved that obtaining this placement was so easy, as working in a school as a physical education teacher is my future career goal.

An aspect that I did struggle with to complete was all of the pre-placement documents. There was a considerable number of them to fill out, and I was slightly anxious in case I filled them out wrong. Before I sent the ‘Sourcing your own Placement’ documents to my mentor, I had a read through them and filled out what I could. I was unsure about what parts of the forms I was to fill out and what my mentor was to complete. After I had sent them to my mentor and had them filled out by him, I felt a lot more at ease about the whole process. This was due to the fact that I then had my placement fully secured and organised.

When I attended the seminar in week 2 of this semester, I felt as though it became a lot clearer on what I have to do throughout this module. I learned about what was required to do to enable me to excel in the module and about how it will benefit me. Finding out about how I can use this experience to make myself more desirable for employers, while also benefitting the employers and university, was very interesting.

My first day as a full-time Strength & Conditioning coach has just ended and it has been a pretty exciting one.  Although I have been a Strength & Conditioning intern at the University of Stirling for the past 2 years and the environment was quite familiar to me, I have learned so much in such a short period of time. The day started at 7.30 am in the sports office at the gym, where I met up with Josh Walsh (University of Stirling high-performance S&C coach) and Shannon, a coursemate of mine who is going to get the same work experience as me through the placement. We first had a brief introduction to the program by Josh, who gave us a more detailed idea of what we should have expected from the upcoming week working together. Shannon and I have both been asked which expectations we had about the program and each of us wrote them down on a post-it so that we could all try our best to make the most out of this experience. Considering that I was not completely new to the program, my expectations were mostly related to getting a better insight into all the considerations an S&C coach should make when it comes to programme and managing different training modalities for different sports. We then went over some safety procedures to use in case of an emergency happening during any session. At 9 am we headed to Allan Grange (the small gym behind Pathfoot building) where we delivered the first session of the day for the High-Performance Swimming team. I knew the guys from previous sessions I used to shadow and it was nice to see how most of them managed to improve over the course of the year. I was in charge of delivering the warm-up routine for one particular athlete. The session focus was speed-strength. It was nice to have a chat with Josh about the way he programmed the swimmers’ specific training periodization. As an S&C coach is really important to explain the rationale behind each session and training block. It was exciting to see the athletes doing a few exercises I was not really familiar with and learn how to do them and the benefits of them. I really focused on a few exercises I usually include in my sessions as well, and it was useful to see on which specific teaching points Josh focused when giving feedback to the athletes.  Right after the swimming session, it was time for a tennis session. I gave some of the athletes some feedback on how to perform a clean pull. Again, it was enjoyable to see some of the athletes from the previous year and catch up with them. After lunch, we spent some time programming the next session for men’s football. We took into consideration the different demands of the sport compared to the previous two we coached in the morning. We then delivered the session for the team. Although most of the athletes have a personalized program to follow (team builder picture above)  that can be view on a specific app, team sports such as football have a team program to follow. Before starting the session, the coaches usually write the programme on the board and introduce it to the whole team (see picture above). I was new to that specific session, as I have never coached the men’s football team before. It was really nice to see that they are a nice group of athletes really committed to their sport, united and engaged with the session. The day finished with the last session delivered for the women’s football first team. As the number of athletes in the room was much higher than the previous sessions, it was overwhelming at first and I felt like there was so much to do and to check. The session was enjoyable and I helped a few athletes with some assistance work. It has been a very long and busy day as an S&C coach but I enjoyed every second of it and, although I was not completely new to the environment, I felt exposed to so many new things and dynamics in only one day. Even if the day has been really busy, there has always been time for a laugh during and in between sessions, which made the whole experience really enjoyable. I cannot wait to see what is going to happen in the next days!

Welcome to Sports Work Expereince!

You are required to write a blog post on a biweekly basis and comment on others’ posts (a minimum of one blog post and two comments on others’ per week) on Canvas. This will assist you in developing your reflective writing skills and completing your final report. Each post is basically about what you have done so far, what went well/bad, what skills/knowledge you have learned, what you would like to do next time, how you have developed a relationship with your colleagues and mentors, etc (approx 300-400 words). You are welcome to use some pictures relevant to what you write. If you haven’t done anything yet, you can write about our seminars. 

Dealines for each post are as follows:

• 1st post: Monday 27th January – Sunday 2nd February
• 2nd post: Monday 10th February – Sunday 16th February
• 3rd post: Monday 24th February – Sunday 1st March
• 4th post: Monday 9th March – Sunday 15th March
• 5th post: Monday 23th March – Sunday 29th March
• 6th post: Monday 6th April – Sunday 12th April

If you have any questions, please let me know. I look forward to reading your posts!

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