SPSU9W6 – Sports Work Experience (Spring 2020)

This has been another frustrating week for myself and my work placement. After recieving back pvg’s and being all clear to go, I was due to start a cricket club after school in Riverside primary on the Tuesday, something I was beyond excited for. On monday evening I had a breif phone call with Craig to discuss what the plans were, and this just got me more keen to get on with it. However the next morning i recieved a text saying there were limited sign ups so it was just cancelled. I actually struggled to hide my dissapointment as the prospect of increasing crickets reach and helping provide more children the opportunity to try it was something I was extremely keen for.

Since then I have been talking to Craig to try and come up with other solutions, one of which is a Basketball club in the Raploch community center, which also sounds like a good option as it is a sport I used to play a bit. However this is only for 30 mins a week. The Second option proposed by Craig however clashes with clashes and my other coaching commitments at the University. So at the moment I am struggling to figure out how to complete 30 hours, considering that I was unable to start anything until PVG came back and now the issues with the cricket club.

Unfotunatley I feel that this work experience is following a pattern with the previous module I undertook, but hopefully there is time to turn it around!

On a more positive note Craig has sent over some other opportunites in the local area, which are all multi school events or something of the sort. This is something I am interested in as I see sports developemnt and inclusion as a field I would like to get into, and hopefully this can help me get closer to the target.

Hopefully the upcoming week bears more fruitful and I can start an experience where I can make a positive impact on others, and gain from it myself.

This week on placement I was asked to plan the same as the previous week plus another lesson for 6th years. The first two lessons went really well again and was growing in confidence when taking these classes. In the third class this week I had been asked to plan a gymnastic session which was completely out of my comfort zone as I have barely ever done gymnastics never mind taught it. So I was really nervous about taking it. I had used my experience from previous weeks when I shadowed the PE teachers sessions. The session went surprisingly well, however there were a few techniques that the pupils showed me up with. Taking all these lessons will help me gain experience in coaching different sports in the future and having to deal with different situations in the classroom will also help me for when I become a PE teacher. For the rest of the day I shadowed and helped out in lessons with the PE teacher, whilst taking notes for each lesson. For next week on placement I have asked to plan 4 lessons this time which are for the same three lessons as this week and a volleyball lesson which I am looking forward to.

I had a change of schedule this week, and instead of my usual work placement in the Primary School I helped out with Active Stirling’s holiday club. This was as a result of the mid term break for schools. This was a total new experience for me as I had never done anything like this before. I learned a lot of valuable lessons and again improved some skills and learnt new ones making this a very worthwhile experience this week.

I noticed a major difference in the holiday club and then teaching Physical Education in schools. This was that the holiday clubs main motive was to ensure that the children had fun and kept active, while keeping them safe, whereas whenever in Primary School there are clear objectives and learning outcomes set out in the sessions. I really enjoyed my time at the holiday club because it was more relaxed and I met some new people. My job was to mainly just observe and help out with any equipment.

My work experience so far is extremely valuable and important as I have interviews for my postgraduate PGCE course coming up in the next few weeks, where interview questions will be directed towards the experience I have currently gained. I have now had the opportunity within this module to observe working with children in different settings and have learnt valuable lessons for whenever I start my new course in primary teaching in September.

My next day of placement will be a full day shadowing the PE specialist in Raploch Primary School, and my PVG has now been returned so hopefully I will get the opportunity to get more involved with teaching and delivering sessions.

At the start of this week I began my placement at riverside primary school taking an after school football club with primary 6 school kids. Before I got started I had the pleasure of meeting Gregor who is currently taking an apprenticeship with active schools. I then took this opportunity to ask him as many questions I could think of, in regards to active schools as well as opportunities that have came up for him ever since joining active schools. He said that active schools has enabled him  to leave school so he could pursue an apprenticeship in sports hopefully leading to him having a successful career in that field.

After a brief meeting the kids came in and we had a quick kick about until everyone turned up. I then got to meet everyone individually and we sorted everyone in to teams, as the kids asked for a tournament. I was then sorted into the blue team in order to make up the numbers and put myself in goals. through the games I got to know a little bit more about the class as a whole and found out what position they play as well as teams they support. This helped me relate to the kids because I am also a huge fan of football.

After finishing up the tournament, my team came second due to my extremely poor goalkeeping. however the kids still all had a good time and everyone left with a smile on their face. Beginning this placement has given me an insight into what a career with active schools would look like and has allowed me to discover I may want to go down this career path.

I found the class this week on presentation skills was very helpful and I really enjoyed it. I think it will help me when it comes to the final presentation. I will start preparing for this in the next couple of days to allow me to practice the skills that were taught in the class. I learned a lot from this class and I feel it will also help me out when it comes to interviews for jobs in the future, I am glad that I attended this class.

This week at placement has been enjoyable again, I have been learning new ways to teach and different activities that can be used to teach specific skills. I am improving on current skills as well, like communication. All sessions have been held in the Dunblane centre.

On Thursday 27^th I helped with the red group, which is 3 – 4-year olds. This session focused on jumping in hoops and over cones and kicking a ball. The skill level in this group ranges, so each person needs different coaching to help them learn. I still find this group is harder to coach than the older and more skilled groups, but I feel over the past few weeks I have improved and hope to improve further.

I also went to placement on Friday 28^th, I was only able to stay for 3 of groups and not the 4, due to my work. The first group used similar skills and drills to the Thursday group and were the same age. Some of the kids aren’t confident yet so their parents can sit at the side to make them feel more comfortable. The next sessions with the older group involved using teamwork and competitions.

At the end of every session, someone gets a player of the week trophy where they take it home and bring it back the next again week. This helps to encourage them to all try their best during every session.

So far, I am really enjoying my work placement and my mentor is always there if I need any help or have any questions.

For my third blog post I am going to talk about another day of placement as well as my mid placement meeting with the module coordinator, Romie. I am also going to discuss the last seminar we had which discussed presentation skills In the lead up to my presentation on this placement.

Placement is getting more intense each day but also very very interesting. The early starts are quite challenging especially if we finish late the day before then I’m trying to keep on top of dissertation, coaching for triathlon and work as well.

During my meeting with Romie we were discussing how the placement is going and what I have been doing, and how good my mentor is. I also find that doing this placement is providing me with a lot of useful resources for my job as a fitness instructor in the gym. It’s taught me to start doing a lot more reading and finding out the philosophy of why we chose exercises to give to athletes or in my work situation customers. I have started to implement this when planning the likes of HIIT and circuit classes such as looking at well this exercise is good for this particular part of the body because …..

During programming for athletes we have been using a tier system of planning and using charts for looking at what percentage of effort we want athletes to be working at during their sessions. I have found the tier system for programming quite interesting and Josh sent me over a huge book online about that type of programming and it has been so beneficial when it comes to me coaching the triathlon team outside of this placement.

In class this week we had a bit of a workshop to discuss and look at presentation skills. It was very interesting and I for sure learnt a few things I didn’t know to do when giving a presentation such as a default five stance. Taking part in this workshop also allowed me to find out I have a habit of rocking on my feet when giving a presentation so this is good to know beofre I do my presentation for this placement. I am looking forward to giving my presentation to show how good my placement has been.

I haven’t been to my work placement within the last two weeks. This has been down to a change in my university timetable this week due to the Sports Readings module, meaning I couldn’t attend on Tuesday, the day I normally go to Wallace. The previous week I never managed to make it to Wallace either, as they had in-service days. Meaning it wouldn’t have been of much relevant benefit for me to have attended, which luckily suited me as that was reading week and meant I could go to my work instead.

I am really looking forward to getting back into placement. When I return – hopefully next Tuesday – I want to try and step things up a gear. After my mid semester review of the module, Romie has encouraged me to try and get more involved within the department, as opposed to just shadowing the entire time I am there. This would give me much more hands-on experience of the placement and I feel that I would benefit greatly from becoming more involved. I am going to speak to my mentor about this when she returns, she has been off on maternity leave for the duration of the time I have been there, so I am hoping that once I return she will be back and I can have someone who can give me feedback on how to improve or make the most of my placement experience.

As far as the seminar went on Thursday I sadly was not able to attend. I need to read the notes from it and go over it to prepare for my presentation coming up, as currently I do not feel like I have enough to talk about in my presentation but this is probably partially down to nerves as well.

I feel that I need to fully immerse myself more into the work placement and make the most of the opportunity while it is still there but again I’m just finding it a bit tricky without my mentor being there. I will try talking to the staff that are there when I go back next week and take it from there, hopefully I will start being able to lead portions of classes or something along those lines.

So far I have racked up around 15 hours, so timing is not too much of as issue at the moment, but still halfway to go!

 After a number of weeks of waiting for PVGs to be approved, this past week I finally started my work placement with Active Stirling. Even though it was only one hour completed, I was extremely relieved to just have got the ball rolling towards my 30 hours of work. For my first experience of my placement, myself and my mentor Craig arranged to meet at Riverside Primary School where we were to deliver a new lunchtime football club for Primary 2 pupils.

 I arrived at the school at the start of their lunchtime, feeling slightly nervous. However, Craig is great at making me feel at ease and straight away he showed me around the facilities at the school and we gathered some soft footballs from the equipment cupboard, appropriate for the P2 children. Before the kids arrived, Craig assured me that the session would be very relaxed, with the main aim being to get the children active and giving them a taste of football.

 As the children slowly started to arrive after eating their lunch, I firstly organised them into a game of tig as a warm up. Although Craig was leading the first session, I felt comfortable setting the children up in this game, the relaxed atmosphere definitely helped me in this regard. After they had warmed up, we did a couple of relay races with the children, with the importance placed upon functional movement skills during the children’s developmental years. Overall, the kids seemed to respond well to me which definitely helped my confidence, and made me look forward to going back again.

 Taking part in the Presentation Skills seminar on Thursday was also a valuable part of this module. I am never very confident in presenting to my peers, and we will have to wait and see if I do better than previously in this module’s presentation, but I definitely felt the session was helpful and delivered in an engaging fashion.

 Over the next couple of weeks I will be continuing with the P2 football club at Riverside Primary, as well as helping at the P6 football club on Mondays after school, which I am looking forward to. I will also be assisting at the Central Badminton Championships taking place next week at the PEAK, a different experience which should be equally as enjoyable.

On Monday this week I started my work experience placement. As I had been in before to meet my mentor and the people I’d be working with, I wasn’t nervous. We spent the first period of the school day going over what classes I wanted to work in throughout the week, and I wrote them all in a timetable so I didn’t forget. This got me excited for the week, as I knew what I would be involved in and what levels everyone would be at.

When the bell rang, I went into the studio and helped take the 1/2^nd year ASN class. The class teacher and I set up 7 different stations for circuits. I then got asked to take the warm up while the last few stations were set up, which resulted in me bonding with the pupils and obtaining a sense of responsibility which I have not had in a situation like this before. This bond with the pupils meant they asked me for help throughout the class and I managed to give them more confidence in these skills.

The next few of the classes I was in were a bit disjointed due to the weather stopping them from going outside. This meant that the teachers had to improvise and think of a new lesson that could be done in the smallest indoor hall. By watching these 2 lessons be carried out, along with the help that I inputted into the lesson, gave me an insight into how hard it will be to become a teacher. I will need to be able to think up unplanned things on the spot, as you never know what could happen from day to do.

The last period of the day involved a 5^th year class playing dodgeball. Due to this lesson not requiring a teacher to give help and doing any sort of teaching, only supervising, the teacher trusted me to watch over the game while he sat and marked. This again gave me a sense of responsibility as I was trusted to control a class. Even though if I needed him to, the teacher would have stepped in and helped, it allowed me to get a better sense of what it would be like to be a teacher.

I really enjoyed my first day and I couldn’t wait to get back and experience the next few days.

Before we left for the reading week, I had my one-one mid-semester review with Rommie. I felt this went well and was very successful. It provided me with a lot of re-assurance that I was making good progress with my required hours. Sitting down and talking about my placement also made me reaslise how much I had done already and some of the skills I had been developing. Reviewing my experience like this will really benefit me come the end of this module when we are requried to write the final report.

During the reading week I was lucky to get a week off from my placement because the 6-a-side league is for university students it does not run during reading week. However, I began my placement again on the Monday evening. This was my first time running the Monday night league. I was excited about this opportunity because I felt confident in my ability and it was a great chance to work with some new people. The Monday was a great success which has further increased my confidence in my ability to do the placement work.

Although I have been enjoying my placement, I have been hindered through illnesses and a concussion which has lead to me missing seminars. This has made me slightly concerned that I will fall behind. I was fustrated that I was too ill to attend the presentation skills seminar that took place this week. I thought this was an extremely important seminar because we have a presentation in a few weeks and this seminar would’ve given more insight into what Rommie is looking for. However, I have been able to review the materials on Canvas which I hope has caught me up to speed.