Year 10 Work Experience 2005

Name of the Work Experience placement:

Esporta Gym and South Glos Sports Development

Type of work experience:

• Sport

How did you get there each day:

• Car

In general, what sort of things did you have to do:

• I taught children sports around different schools for 3 days, and for the other 2, I worked in a health and fitness gym called Esporta.

What did you think of the work experience:

• I really enjoyed working with children and teaching them sport, it was satisfying to see little children enjoying themselves, and wanting to do sport. However I didn’t enjoy working at Esporta gym because I wasn’t insured so there wasn’t much I could actually do, so I had to do jobs like mending gym mats.

Daily diary:

• Monday
  • Esporta Gym
  • For the first day at Esporta, I was given a quick tour around the complex, and was shown all the fire exits. Then I did things like checking chlorine levels in the spa, shadowed a fitness instructor whilst they showed a client how to use machines and other little jobs such as photocopying.
• Tuesday:
  • Sports development
  • On Tuesday I went to south Glos council, and worked with Sports Development, I went round primary schools and taught them sports. On my first day I went to a school and I worked with a group of children and we did a fitness program.
• Wednesday:
  • Sports development
  • On Wednesday I went to a different primary school and worked with a reception class and because they were very young, we just played little games, to get them to work with others and how to behave. They were really sweet children and they all enjoyed their session with us teaching them.
  • After this session, we taught athletics at the same school but to year 5’s and 6’s. Again, it was really good, we did team exercises and they all really enjoyed it. The weather was nice so we were all outside on the field.
• Thursday:
  • Sports development
  • This was my last day at sports development, so I spent all day out at schools. I went to 3 different schools this day, I worked with the same group as Monday, but we did rounders, that was good because they are all really willing to learn and they are always smiling. I then went to another school and worked with year 3, 4, 5, 6. Because there were so many children, all of the instructors had a group each. So I was put in charge of 30 children, and had to decide what to do with them. I chose to do rounders, they all behaved really well and all enjoyed the game. They were all really enthusiastic because I was a new young face, and they all asked loads of questions. It was really fulfilling. Then lastly, I went to my last school and did athletics with a small group of children, but I had to leave early because it was an after school club and I only worked 9-3pm, so I didn’t get to work with this group for long but it was still good.
• Friday:
  • Esporta Gym:
  • I only worked a short day this day, I did odd jobs around the gym, like cleaning the machines, and sorting out fitness cards, Compared to what I did with Sports development, I didn’t enjoy myself. Working at a gym sounds a lot more fun than it actually is because if you aren’t insured then there isn’t much to do.

Any special skills that were needed:

• ICT skills
• Working with children - Patience, enthusiasm

Any other requirements such as special clothing or safety equipment:

• N/A