Blog post 1

On placement I had already planned a session which I was going to teach to the students on balance. I then aligned the session in relation to the session plan. This involved getting them used to balancing in groups and pairs for the support, assistance and to increase confidence. I gradually to individual balances. As it was the first session I spoke to the coach and mentioned about doing gymnastics as the sessions which I was going to teach, the initial reaction was negative one as they didn’t seem excited about it. Due to this I started to question myself and my ability to produce an appropriate and challenging gymnastics session, which will change the students preconceived opinion on gymnastics. After thinking this it then led me to think about my coaching planning reflective framework (Muir et al;.2011) and especially coach behaviours and how I can address certain coach behaviours to ensure that the quality of the session is off a good standard. Also after getting the reaction like I did off the children I then thought about the player engagement levels and thought that I had to keep them high as they are only year 1 and they can easily lose focus and look elsewhere or mess around with the display boards. In the research of Ford et al. (2010) it suggests that the “more high structured practice would result in higher superior skill” I took this into consideration I based my sessions a little higher than their age group, this allowed the content to be a little more challenging and allowed more concentration making all students be engaged within the session. At the beginning I started with individual work so I could assess the ability of the students, they weren’t particular pleased about this, but they started to understand why I had asked this of them. This then progressed onto single legged balances, at first the students were nervous about not having the support from a peer or myself and by trying a new balance which was on one foot rather than anatomical position. Going back to the start of the session I was doubting my ability to undertake a higher level gymnastics session and looking at the end of the session I felt as though I shouldn’t have been worrying as much about the session as seeing the children learn and gain something from my session as well as enjoying themselves and working independently rather than in a group was an achievement which I am proud of.

Reference list:

-Ford, P.R,. Low, J., McRobert, A.P. and Williams, A.M., (2010). Developmental activities that contribute to high or low performance by elite cricket batters when recognizing type of delivery from bowlers’ advanced postural cues. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 32(5)

-Coaching Planning Reflective
Framework (Muir et al;.2011)

Blog Post 2

As a few weeks had progressed and after seeing a lot of improvement in balancing with no help I thought it was time to introduce objects that stood in the way of the finish line. After seeing the progression over the past 2 weeks the thought of adding objects in the way was a good idea as linking back to Ford et al. (2010) saying higher structured practice all lead to higher superior skill so I designed the sessions with them balancing across benches and beams with a mat at the end and mats either sides incase there is an accident. For myself as a coach I was not feeling confident when delivering this session as they are only yer 1 children and asking them to walk across objects would be challenging and scary as in the back of my ind was always thought of “what if it goes wrong and one of them falls”. Moving into the session I set out a bench and beams with mats either side and at the end and split the group into four groups. The session objectives (Muir et al;.2011) was for them to successfully walk across the beam or bench with support from and assistant and some of the children to be able to walk across the objects with no help rom any assistant. The objectives seemed to be to vague for the session but after seeing the session unfold they didn’t seem to be bad at all as they were achieved but only just. In the session I wanted the children to walk arms out wide one foot in front of the other across the beam or bench and then to carefully step off them once they got to the end. Once I could see they were getting the hang of this with assistance I then asked them to try it again with no help or assistance from anyone. This is where the thought of it all going wrong came racing back into my mind. To my surprise I was easily mistaken as this did not fear any of the children as they were keen and raring to give this a good go and a good go is what they gave it as they got across 8/10 with no help. At the end I then thought deep into my knowledge on how I could broaden this session and I thought of the self determination theory (Ryan, R.M. and Deci, 2000) and gave them the autonomy at the end of the bench to perform any sort of jump onto the mat. After introducing the jump as a coach I was then seeing all sorts of jumps like pencil jumps, star jumps etc and this made me feel very happy the session was a good session and my overall reaction was delight as the session went well and objectives were met and lastly no one was hurt which was a relief!

Reference list

– -Ford, P.R,. Low, J., McRobert, A.P. and Williams, A.M., (2010)

-Coaching Planning Reflective
Framework (Muir et al;.2011)

-Self Determination Theory (Ryan, R.M. and Deci, 2000)

Blog post 3

Throwing was the activity for the after school session which I held with both the year one and two’s. To me as a coach this session seemed to be very simple and very easy deliver so my initial thoughts on this session was positive. The first activity was just a simple one (as seen below) and all they had to was throw bean bags and Quoits into the hoop. This was a base game and was to get the children started in what was to come further in the session. After setting the children off in their task of throwing into the hoop I took a step back from the session to see the engagement levels and how the children were finding the session. From what I could see is that in the group there was mixed abilities and the more advanced children were finding it very easy and I could sense the boredom that they were getting. This is where the single and double loop learning (Argyris and Schan 1978) came into place and more so the double loop. The reason why I thought abut the double loop more was because in my mind I had the question of ‘is this the right thing to do?’. So as a coach witnessing this I then made the game more fun and put it into the theme of the ‘Olympics’. This then made the game more fun and exciting meaning they were encouraging one another to score as many points as I said the first team to sit down won a gold medal, second silver medal and third bronze medal. Once this was underway I then went to the children that were more advanced and told them they could only use their weaker hand to throw to make it more challenging for them. I did this without opening up to the group as I felt if I told them one to one then it will not make the less advanced children upset that they aren’t at their level yet.

Reference List;

Argyris and Schan 1978- single and double loop learning.

Blog post 4

In this session it was also linked to throwing and more advanced from the previous weeks in this after school activity. One of the models I have learnt from being at university is ‘ripples on a pond’ which has motivation, interest and enthusiasm as big components in ‘wanting. To do anything (Race,2014) and this is a model I had in mind when delivering this session as throwing can be seen as a boring thing to do and having no motivation interest or enthusiasm will show and make the session very boring and unenjoyable. On the other hand, the children have been given the autonomy to set their own targets which reverts back to the left determination theory (Ryan, R.M. and Deci,2000). For example, how many times they can knock a ball off the cones etc. When considering my options for this session I had to take in to account that there are some children in the group who’re more advanced than others. So, designing the session was based around this factor and how I could get everyone involved with everyone feeling comfortable in taking part. This session consisted of two teams behind a line facing one another and then cones in the middle with different types of balls on top and the aim was to throw underarm from behind your line with a bean bag, quoit or tennis ball to try and knock the balls in the middle off the cone.

Once I set the children off in their game I could see straight away that the more advanced children were taking control and not letting the less advanced have the chance to knock the balls off. After all the balls had been knocked off I reset the game back to the start and started again just to see if the more advanced would still take control and as predicted the same thing happened again. This then made me think hard as a coach as I needed to act quickly and think of an adaptation to make this game run smoothly and fairly. The adaptation that I came up with was to increase the base lines to four and to have four teams instead of two. This made the game more stretched and more even as the each team had at least one advanced pupil and not a team full of advanced children. This also had a negative side to it because there were four groups instead of two when taking a step back it then looked like organised mayhem as there were balls flying everywhere so the challenge was to restrain the amount of balls flying around but, also to make sure that they were having fun and not to stop the game every 30 seconds. So, the way this happened was for me as coach running around the outside gently rolling balls back to each team meaning that, every time they threw a ball there was always another one to turn around to and throw that.

Blog post 5

The final session of gymnastics was a combined session of rolls and balancing with benches and beams again. This session consisted of the pupils performing either forward rolls/teddy bear rolls and then straight up to walk arms out wide across the beam or bench. Then performing a pencil or star jump at the end of the bench. For me as a coach this was seen as a ‘test’ to the children to see if they have progressed from the first week of gymnastics. The way in which this was set up is I had mats and they were followed by benches or beams followed by mats. What I wanted from this session was to see the progress the children have made throughout the sessions that I have done with them and to see how comfortable they are moving forward in the sport. For me as a coach this was a positive session and ran exactly the way I wanted it even though I had to overcome certain barriers for that to happen. The barriers that I had to overcome were the children going off task. For example, running over to me asking questions about university, what sports do I play. I think this was because they knew it was the last session and also me knowing that it is a sport that isn’t enthusiastic and outgoing it is more of a relaxed sport that requires a lot of concentration. For or year 1 children that is a tough element at that age as they are giddy and only have 1 hour of PE a week. Some of them see this as an opportunity to have an extra playtime with their friends. As the session progressed through time I could see children who at the start of the term were shy and not confident to try certain types of movements and skills going all out to attempt everything. I think this was because I made into a little competition where I would score each group out of 10 and this added a little bit of competence (Ryan, R.M. and Deci, 2000).On the other hand, I did not want this to get to competitive as they were on beams and benches walking and I did not want them rushing I wanted the correct technique and I didn’t want any injuries to happen.

Summary Of the Year

Overall, the year at five lanes has been a great experience for me as a coach and it has helped me massively moving forward into the future when coaching. This has benefitted me because I have been delivering gymnastics which to me at the start was a challenge. It brought me totally out of my shell and the first time I got told about gymnastics I was left puzzled. I have never delivered a session in gymnastics and at school I always tried to avoid taking part myself. In the sessions over the months that there have been many challenges. To address the challenges I had to plan the sessions for future weeks with the use of the GROW framework. This helped me massively going forward and especially in gymnastics as this was something I had never done so doing this it was helpful. It also helped me planning the goals of the sessions. If any problems occurred how I was going to address these and prevent these in the future. If the problems did occur, did the way I address the problem work? and would my coaching change moving forward into future sessions. This framework tool was a big help for me as it made me think when designing sessions for the class as I changed the way I coached and how I came across to make it easier for the children. Also, easier for myself to understand and get my head around as well. It has been a massive learning curve and I feel like I have developed and progressed each week as a coach, even after having some set backs . Also, the after school sessions as well, they have developed me into a stronger coach. As I am teaching the pupils in their own time, me being strong as a coach worked and not being tedious, keeps the children wanting to attend. I have seen my confidence grow through my time there, in comparison to the start of the year to the end of the year, it was like having new person.

For me now moving forward it is all about finishing my degree at Leeds Beckett University and then my hope is to take a year out go to Australia and play cricket and enjoy that, create a new adventure and who knows I could stay out there with my own coaching business!

At my work placement I am working with Year 1 children so for me this is a massive challenge as they are still very young in their development so keeping them active and engaged is the main goal for me.

The curriculum of the school is a none existent curriculum as they work alongside a coaching company called premier sports. The main thing about this is that we have to be in contact with the coach that we work along side so we can plan sessions around what he plans on delivering to the children. As the children are still very young the main focus of development is FMS (Lloyd and Oliver 2012).

In these coaching sessions the main thing I am looking for after looking at the coaching planning reflective framework (Muir et al 2011) is player engagement. The reason for this is because as they are still at a young age and keeping them engaged and active is important especially as they only have 1 hour per week for PE lessons so knowing this I need to take sure that my sessions are fun and engaging so that they make use of the time that they have. Furthermore, I believe that motivating the class is Also a main part of my coaching sessions when delivering to this year group. When looking a the self determination theory (Deci and Ryan 2000) motivation is key when they are at this stage of development as the likelihood of these having a main sport that they play consistently is very low so keeping them motivated to try different sports and making sure they are making use of the time available to them may allow them to find a sport they really enjoy and they may not of thought they would of enjoyed.

Psycho- social behaviour at this age is key as they do not want to left on their own or left out of any sort of activity so working on this in my sessions can help them massively as they get older and also in the classroom as well If they do something along the lines of group work. I looked at Harwood’s 5c’s ( Dr Matt Pain; Dr Chris Harwood; Rich Anderson, MSc) along with the composite youth model. In the 5c’s it is based around confidence, commitment, communication, control and concentration. I believe in year 1 these 5 different components are essential and will help massively towards gaining understanding in sport and also the enjoyment of PE lessons. This is because if you have confidence to try a new activity and not shy then not only will this make you feel good about yourself it may also rub off on others as they might believe that they can achieve what you have done. Another main component of this communication. This can have a big impact not only in PE lessons but in the classroom as well. The reasoning for this is you can work as team in the PE lessons to win the game or finish first depending on the activity and then in the classroom if you are doing group work. As a whole, I think that using something like this at this level of teaching is great baseline to work with as once these things have been mastered and you can see the progress then you will be able to progress further in my teaching.

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Meso Plan

As mentioned above I am working with year 1 children and with them the sport I am teaching is gymnastics. For year 1 children gymnastics can be seen as a sport that isn’t appealing as it looks difficult and boring so the interest levels they might have may be low and the engagement levels may not be at the highest level. After taking the into consideration the aims and objectives, the main one for me as a coach is that I want the children to be at a point where they are comfortable with balancing and performing certain rolls within the area of gymnastics.

My Meso plan will be based on particular rolls and balances that are incorporated within gymnastics. To do this I have to slowly introduce:

1. Conditioning of the muscles used in rolls such as forward rolls – For example, the muscles in the shoulder – with the use of bunny hops and putting all the weight on their shoulders to be able to roll over. 2. technique to be taught off the rolls and the safety involved in rolling.
2. this will then be done again for each roll and balance
3. why is the core important in a balance – and I think it is centre of mass over base of support – to allow you to balance.

Below is a an example of how I am going to implement gymnastics week by week and what each session is going to be about and what it is going to be about.

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Macro Plan

The macro plan for this year group and gymnastics is pretty simple and it is measurable and definitely achievable for the children to complete. in the group of children I am coaching there are 30 children in the class so one of my objectives is to get at least 25 out of the 30 children capable of performing balances across different types of objects e.g. benches without any assistance from myself or any other coaches. Another objective for this plan is to get 20 out of the 30 performing the two types of rolls that will be taught to them and to get them performing those rolls without any helper assistance from myself as a coach.

End of Programme Macro Goals

The macro goals have been achieved and have been achieved quite successfully as the first goal was to get 25 out of the 30 all balancing across different types of objects without any assistance from a coach around and this was successfully achieved as 30 out of the 30 children has completed this with no help from anyone and after weeks of practice they had achieved the end goal of getting across with no help.

The second goal was also successfully achieved as I set out for at least 20 out of 30 to successfully perform the two types of rolls which were teddy bear and forward roll. At the start of the programme this was looking very unlikely as the children were struggling in getting the positioning right and getting into the right places for the roll to run smoothly so after weeks of practice and doing them more frequently the children managed to get the rolls spot on!

Overall, I feel very happy with my coaching for the children a I feel like I have progressed them further in the aspect of gymnastics because not many of them were happy when I first said gymnastics is the sport I will be delivering but as the weeks progressed they seemed to like it more and more and the engagement levels increased as well. The objectives that I set out seem very basic but as they are only year 1 they seemed very measurable and achievable for them to get and although some part of the objectives were challenging they got there and smashed there targets!

I am from Oldham, which is in the Greater Manchester area in the great county of Lancashire. from the young age of 4 I have loved being involved in sports especially football and most certainly cricket. I developed the love of playing football after following in the footsteps of my dad but cricket was all about me, living next to a cricket club (Royton Cricket Club) I just loved popping my head round the gates itching to get involved. I gave up on the football front not just because of injury but my love for cricket had grown stronger and stronger. I was then fortunate enough to represent my District for cricket and then this also allowed further opportunities and most importantly representing my county in national tournaments and I feel like this was a massive achievement for me. From the success of gaining 8 GCSE’s at North Chadderton School, I then moved to Oldham college doing BTEC extended sports diploma in sport. I came out of this with a double distinction which In the end I was very pleased with.

Moving forward I then moved to Leeds Beckett University where I am currently at studying BSCH Sports Coaching course whist playing Bucs Cricket and being part of a great cricket club at the Uni. I have always wanted to pursue a career in coaching as well as teaching. by working in schools universities delivering sessions and also being part of the cricket club picking up different ideas this helps me massively as I am someone who strives by working alongside others as well as learning different strategies.

I have many different qualifications and they as follows;

• FA level 1 Qualification
• First Aid Qualification
• Level 1 in coaching cricket
• Level 1 Health and safety at work.

CPD

One of the courses that we were introduced to is Wheelchair England Rugby League. On this coaching course it allowed us to broader our knowledge into how being in a wheelchair still allows you to take part in sessions such as rugby and not make people feel like they are segregated and unable to take part. The first part of the session started off by playing wheelchair rugby and getting used to how the game works. We started by working how to move around the area in a wheelchair attempting to pick the rugby ball up and then wheeling around whilst holding the rugby ball and for this to happen you had to wheel twice and then lean and pick the ball up. This was a good way to start the session as me personally and few of the other participant didn’t now how to pick the ball up whilst wheeling. The next part of the session consisted of moving out of a wheelchair and into small sided games. The coaches started off by taking us through different sessions that they had provided. After this they then gave us the authority to coach a session ourselves based on our own rugby knowledge or the sheets that were given to us by them and this then allowed us to come up with different ideas collectively. The last station of this practical was a session which was about the background of England Rugby league and how they can have an impact on young and older people’s lives. The basis of this part was getting to know how they work. Overall I believe that this was beneficial for moving forward as a coach as I think that it has opened new pathways for me and brought me out of my comfort zone, getting me thinking that a main stream sport like rugby can still be played regardless if you are in a wheel chair or not.

FA level 1 Coaching Course.

This football course is designed to develop and improve coaches skills on football to a higher level and advising aspiring coaches the way the FA would like new and upcoming coaches to deliver football session to a football team that can be from really young so under 5 all the way to open age. From taking part in this course I think that this has benefitted me coming into a sports coaching degree as I did this before coming to university and I was not confident in making any progress with session plans and I also was not that good at producing a good session but from this course and then using the resources available to me from the FA I believe that this has put me in a good place to move forward with my coaching. I believe that this would help me in the future for employability as now I have my level 1 I can now develop this further and work towards my level 2 and maybe father up the footballing ladder but it has definitely put me in a great place and by that meaning for coaching jobs as I have the minimum of what they want and now I have that I can go outside of the degree and focus more on improving my coaching.

Mentoring

I have mentored the level 4 students during their festivals with the children coming in from different schools. I believe that the feedback that I had given them will help them throughout their time coaching, at university, placement as I have been in that situation in my first year at Leeds Beckett so giving them feedback on what they can improve on moving forwards. This would be beneficial for them and for the level 4’s to get advice of older students who have been in there shoes is one thing that they should make the most of as interacting doesn’t really happen with the older students on the course. After being assigned a group to work with and guide, we observed their session during their festival. This for a level 4 student can be quite daunting and nerve racking as not only are they being observed by older students, they are also delivering a session to children who have come in to take part for the first time and not just their peers in seminars. After watching the session and making notes on what had taken place it was then a good opportunity to give them their feedback. For example, in the session I picked upon that when the main coach had split the students into groups, the other coach could off then got them underway instead of standing waiting for the lead coach to split them all up. The reason why I mentioned this when reflecting on the session is because it is key that the children are always in action and don’t spend time standing around. Another point I picked up on was the groupings. This means the way they split the group up as there was one group struggling and another who were striving. From past experience in coaching I believe that is beneficial for the group taking part to be mixed so that the children who’re struggling then had the opportunity to learn of the drivers in the group. It may also make them feel like saying to themselves if they can do it then why can’t I?. Overall, from this mentoring session it has been good for me as I can use this in my own coaching where possible and also for the level 4’s it is also good so that they can use this feedback and move forward positively in there future sessions.

Community Engagement

My first part of the community engagement took place at my School placement (Five Lanes Primary School) as we took the children on a school trip to football tournament against other schools in the local area. This was the first time during placement where we had take the children outside of school and as the main teacher. This was a football tournament for the children to compete in and we were told by the office team at the school that the school had never won anything like this before. Hearing that as the coach and mentor of the children it gave me massive motivation to go there and win. When we arrived at the venue it consisted of 7 other schools being there and having a round robin tournament. I had little notes in my pocket that had the formations and little tactics on them even though it was for fun and it was mainly for the children to look at, hoping to get them into positions where they could score and also win the game. The main thing i wanted to get from this trip is for the children to have fun and enjoy the experience of competing against other schools as it is very rare that the school get invited/take part in sport tournaments. As mentioned above the school have never won anything like this before so after winning two out of the three group games getting into the semi finals, it already felt a massive achievement for myself as the coach and for the school. The only issue we faced in this was keeping the children together and not having them wandering off to speak to other schools but, this was outlined before we arrived that we didn’t want this sort of thing happening, we wanted to stay together as a group and as a school. After getting paired with another school from the other group there was no sign of boredom from the children and certainly no signs of them wanting to go home! Getting through the semi final and into the final was a colossal achievement and even though we lost the final I feel that the children did the school proud and the school recognised that as when we returned. The following week we were told that the children who played had received a numerous amounts of house points in their respective classes, and this was much deserved as they did everyone proud. For myself, moving forward in coaching and looking into potential other openings and tournaments. This was a learning curve for me as this stood out as on of the most challenging coaching days I have had, as I was the responsibility of the children at that school and although it was nerve racking it was. As well as very fun and enjoyable and I would defiantly not say no to doing this again in the future.

The second part of community engagement that I took part in was a workshop organised by the Level 6’s on our course. There were plenty of workshops to choose from but the one I looked into and was drawn to was called ‘Burnout in Sport’. The reason why I chose this was because I had always looked at everything but the fatigue and the burnout that can be caused by playing or taking part in sport, and why this has a massive impact on participants and their performance. This was mainly because it looked remotely boring and I was not interested in any of it but I was to be proved wrong!

In this session it was the impact too much sport can have on a participant and in this it gave certain examples of it also not being sport related on why burnout can happen. For example, I learnt that parents and family can have a massive impact by pushing and forcing their son/daughter all the way leading them to be physically and mentally burnt out as they feel like they can not do anymore whatsoever. Following on from this we then looked at ways where this can be stopped. From this session it really gave me an insight on something I had never thought about looking into whilst studying and, it has given me something to think about when delivering my own sessions to think ‘have I gone too far’, ‘is there enough time to recover before going again’. Also, in relation to my studies and thinking what about looking into this more and using this as a guide in my final year at University.

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Social Media Training

The first part of social media training I Took part in was mistakes to avoid in writing a CV and the second part of social media training was Interview top tips. I felt as though these two would help me in future as I can build a good enough CV to get through to the interview stage and then when being present in the interview the tips that would give me to be calm, comfortable and just to be myself.

Mistakes to avoid when writing your CV:

Number 1:

Sending the same CV out to multiple employers – without tailoring it to that particular job. For example, skills, duties etc.

• They want to know:
• Can you do their job – Highlight key words in job description and do research. Makes sure it is obvious in the CV the ley competences 
• Are you passionate about the area of work – extracurricular, society, volunteering work. Link it all back to the job, what you learnt and developed for the job you’re applying for. E.G. strong communication skills and back up with an example.
• Are you going to fit in – tailor it is showing you will fit in.  Job adverts – pull out the key skills and common themes.
• Know what you have to offer – Strengths – show that you are better than the next candidate, confident in articulating yourself. Also, have examples and evidence of what you have done. 
• Used numbers – E.G. out of 300 pupils I got classmate of the year – more impactful.

Number 2:

Irrelevant Information 

• Ask yourself so what – does this allow you to get the job – pull out the relevance
• Degree learning – why is it useful your degree? – why is the degree better? 
• Studied till level 6, know about the theory’s trends and research, key modules that will link or projects you have completed that will link.
• Work experience – chronological order – competences – link it all to a strength – transferable skills that can link to this job.
• Extracurricular, volunteering, skills, awards – what makes you different? Sell what makes you unique.
• Excellent references available upon request – unless they ask for it.

Number 3:

Focusing on duties rather than achievement and competences 

• E.G. You can follow strict health and safety – attention to detail, shift at short notice shows flexibility 
• up and beyond for something 
• tell them what you did – E.G. cricket – what you did, role, skills gained from the role and link back to the job 

Number 4:

Difficult to read/poor format

• Legible 
• Not too small text 
• Make it easy to see the key points 
• Make them want to read on and be excited about it 
• Have to make it stand out

Number 5:

Lack of attention to detail 

• Check, check and check again 
• Don’t give them the chance to put the CV in the NO pile 
• Spelling mistakes, grammar?
• Don’t give them an excuse to put you in a NO pile.

Key messages:

• Needs to be tailored to the job role 
• Maximum of two pages long 
• Focused on most relevant skills and experiences 
• Back skills and experiences up with evidence 
• Make sure layout makes the reader want to read it – E.G. Bold and Text style 
• Shout about the achievements you have done – helps you stand out from the crowd 

From this CV video I feel that this has helped me moving forward into the future when writing one in regards to job opportunities that may occur and pop up once my degree hs finished at Leeds Beckett University.

Interview top tips:

Number 1:

Plan Ahead 

• Critical 
• Really understand the employer, challenges they’re facing, growth, competitors and the role you’re applying for.
• RESEARCH
• Authentic answers – what excited you about their business 
• Type of interview it will be – competency or strength interview?
• Rise of online video interviews – plan the technology in advance – quiet environment – background of the room – types of online interviews, skype or re-recorded interview 
• Know where you are going for the interview – Practice run to know where you’re going 
• Outfit you will be wearing – Dress code 

Number 2:

Understanding the employee/person specification

• Topics they are going to ask you to talk about in the interview
• Predict what is going to come up – looking at the specification 
• Highlight key words on the job advert if there is no specification 

Number 3:

Prepare your answers 

• CAR or CAB – context, action, result/benefit 
• Context – Set the scene – where were you, what were you doing, what problems you were having 
• Action – The action you took personally 
• Result/Benefit – What happened – can you quantify it (use numbers) bring out the skills and competences they are looking for.

Number 4:

Think of something you would like to ask 

• Most interviews will have the opportunity to ask
• Show employer you’re interested in the company/job
• Relate to the business – where do they see the business in 5 years’ time.
• Show passion, interest for the role

Number 5:

Practice

• Interview questions 
• Rehearse answering 
• Online video interview simulator – look at body language, how can improve the answers you can give
• Mock interview 
• Curve ball questions – see how you deal with being in the situation – I don’t have the answer to that now this is how I am going to get that answer – don’t be flustered.

Example questions – Competency style questions: 

Describe a situation when you have led a team?

How do you handle a difficult customer?

Tell me about a time when you have overcome a problem at work?

People give me an example of a time when you have had to work towards a challenging deadline?

This, like the CV writing video was also helpful as this has given me a massive insight into what an interview would be like and the tips that I picked up in the video would help me when attending a job interview and how reading one and using these tips can stand me In a good chance of getting the job!

For my work placement I am currently working at Five Lanes Primary School which is a School that is based on the outskirts of Leeds City centre, in a small area called Wortley. The school is full of mixed genders, mixed religions and mixed abilities which for me as a coach is brilliant as then I get to broader my range of knowledge of coaching from the children as they will all learn and act in a different way.

The school itself have their own mission statement which states ‘ Aiming High, is reflected in pupil’s good behaviour’. Using this statement it gives me a good opportunity to develop my knowledge and understanding to how life in a primary school works and it will also help me develop my knowledge even further and help build the confidence and motivation of the year 1 children that I am working with and doing this through the session plans created. The roles and responsibilities of my job are as follows;

Roles and Responsibilities

1. Planning and carrying out session plans which aim to develop different FUNdamental movements for the children and making sure they are having fun within the sessions.
2. Having to deal with certain situations like warm ups, game rotations and making sure that everyone taking part in the session is included.
3. Lastly, creating a positive relationship between myself the coach and the children taking part ensuring there are now barriers between us which could lead to them not wanting to take part in any of the sessions provided.