Apprentice of the Month – January 2024
Could you please share some insights about yourself?
I’m really interested by the philosophy of coaching and being able to get the best out of my students. I like a whole range of sports such as football and swimming and I had past experiences working with all ranges of people at Norwich City Football Club where I worked with people of all abilities and needs of all ages.
What motivated your decision to become an Inspire+ apprentice?
I found the Inspire+ route alone after I had a weeks work experience with my current workplace, I loved it that I applied for my apprenticeship through my apprenticeship lead at the school and got the opportunity that way. I’m using this year as experience for my future career in teaching as after this year I will be studying sports science at university and hopefully doing teacher training after that so it is a brilliant start to hopefully a very good career in teaching.
What valuable insights and skills have you gained thus far during your apprenticeship?
How to manage behaviour properly because with all the incidents that happen at school, being able to deal with them confidently is the most important skill I have learned so far.
What skills have you learned from attending training one day per week?
The theory behind why some children are more tricky than others may be, what can cause it and how to deal with them so they can get the most out of PE. As well as this, lesson planning is another big skill I have learnt how to do properly as it has made me a lot more organised when planning and delivering sessions.
What do you enjoy about your apprenticeship?
Everything, from the lessons, to speaking to the children and seeing the staff I work with every day
What do you hope to achieve in the future? What are your career ambitions?
My future ambition is to be a PE teacher at a secondary school or primary school and I want to be a massive influence in shaping students lives.
Would you like to share a good memory from your apprenticeship?
For example, some kids didn’t like the PE sessions, but after you started working with them, they were happier and enjoyed participating; how did you adapt a session to different levels of learning, and how your mentor helped you with an issue you had, etc.
Cross country tournament where I took some students to Langley and logged their scores but the encouragement you could see in their faces it was such a big thing for them and it was so rewarding to see. As well as this I do a lot of 1-1 work with a student who has muscular dystrophy and we had a half term of doing swimming lessons with them and seeing how much progress they made on such a short span of time with me was really amazing as well.
Do you recommend other people to become an inspire+ apprentice?
Couldn’t recommend it more, every tutor you have is so helpful and they teach you so much that you will need to thrive in the future. I’ve been on the course a few months and have already learned so much and being able to put it into practice has helped so much as well because it’s only useful to know the things if you can apply it to your everyday work.
To find out more about our apprenticeships, visit www.inspireplus.org.uk/apprenticeships