This document summarizes the author's experiences that have led them to pursue a career in primary school teaching. It describes how working to improve their English language skills through humanities subjects in secondary school helped strengthen a perceived weakness. It also details experiences playing rugby and sprinting that showed the importance of developing confidence through practice. The author gained teaching experience through a sports leadership program in secondary school and volunteering at a primary school, learning about classroom management and the importance of being a role model. These experiences, along with successfully delivering a lesson in secondary school, convinced the author to become a primary school teacher.

1. All about Me.
My first significant memory is undertaking extra comprehension work during year 3 and 4.
This is significant to me because it shown me that I had a weakness in English language
which needed work on. After a lot of work I improved, however I still had a weakness and
realised I needed to develop my strengths such as subject knowledge to compensate for
this. But during the remained of my education, I improved my English Language skills to the
extent where I no longer perceive them as major weakness. This major improvement after
my comprehension work was mainly due to me mainly doing humanities subjects at GCSE
and especially Alevel, in which I did Sociology, Geography and History. Because of the
amount of essays I had to do, I was able to further practice my language skills regularly.
Another Significant memory is my first few years playing rugby, as I really struggled to
develop the skills and abilities within the game. But during my third year playing I started to
gain more confidence and improved very quickly and as a result received the most improved
player of my age group. The same happened the next season as well, to the extent that I
became a key member of the team, resulting in being nominated for all the awards and
again receiving the most improved player. This taught me that confidence is especially key
for me to develop in whatever I’m doing. This idea has been reinforced further by my
progression as a sprinter within my year group at school, where after three years of being
second or third. I became the fastest in my year group through my confidence being
boosted after winning previous races and a lot of hard work in the weeks leading up to it.
This helped me discover that while I may not pick skills etc straight away, if I keep working
or practicing that skill, I will eventually develop it. Sometimes to a high standard. This also
taught me not to get dis-hearted when things do not go to plan straight away, as they is very
counterproductive and ultimately pointless. It is much better to dust yourself off and try
again.
I also had taken part in the Sports Leaders programme for four years. This is perhaps the
most vital part of my preparation for the course, as it taught me the basics of being a
teacher, through experiences I had during my time in the programme. The first is concerning
the ability to adapt very quickly to unforeseen events. This occurred when the first time I
planned an event, which was during an primary school Olympics. My station wasn’t working
because I over complicated it, so after the second group had left I majorly changed my plan.
This worked and the remaining groups really enjoyed themselves. Throughout my time as a
sports leader I built the foundations of my teaching style. I discovered that by having a
genuine enthusiasm and enjoyment of whatever I’m teaching, the children will be naturally
interested in it and it will flow more smoothly. Something that I also discovered is that
teachers are very important role models to the children they teach. Therefore I decided to
be as professional and inspiring as I can whenever I interact with children, as this will ensure

2. the children develop in the correct way while I teach then and they will hopefully remember
me.
I also volunteered at my local primary school during my gap year to gain some in class
experience before I started this course, as all my experience so far was sports based. During
my eight months at the school, I gained further invaluable experience into the teaching
profession. Such as viewing different ways of handling discipline, for example one teacher
raised their voice a lot, another never needed to as all she needed to do was stare or change
her facial expression to defuse most situations. I also learnt to learn that children have a lot
of quirky characteristics and how to manage them accordingly. Like learning what children
would wait until the last minute to ask for the toilet and which ones did not.
There was a key point when I defiantly decided to become a primary teacher. It was during
my final year at school and I was tasked by my sociology teacher to plan and deliver a lesson
for a year 8 class concerning crime and punishment. It went extremely well and all the
teachers involved said I should seriously consider become a teacher and combined with how
well the lesson went, gave me belief in my teaching ability and that I had a genuine chance
of becoming a good teacher. Before this point I had really enjoyed working with children but
didn’t believe I possessed the necessary attributes for a teacher. After this point, with
boosted confidence I started to build these attributes and develop my confidence, especially
during my time at Milldown first school. Through my time as a sports leader, I realised that I
much preferred working with primary children, as my personality and attributes were more
alike to a primary teacher. I did coach secondary school aged children in school as well as in
the local rugby club. While I did thoroughly enjoy doing that, I didn’t feel I had as much of an
impact as when I was teaching/coaching primary aged children.