My Journey as a PE TA Apprentice: Francis Wright

Francis works as a teaching assistant at Hare Street Community Primary School and Nursery, a two-form mainstream primary school in Essex.

She was hired as a PE apprentice and, after gaining a Distinction in her Level 3 Apprenticeship with a PE Health and Wellbeing Focus, now has a permanent full time role as a trained PE professional at her school.

Francis is also a two-times national boxing champion, and winner of six regional titles. She recognised early on that she could combine her love of sport with her work as a teaching apprentice and one of the initiatives she has rolled out is an after-school boxing club.

Below she tells us about the value of her apprenticeship training and why we need to get girls involved in sport as early as possible.

Francis: I think because I work full time and specialise in sports I’ve been able to help boost PE provision here and expand what we have on offer.

Before I joined, it was only logistically possible for our PE teacher to deliver sessions three times a week, but now that I’m here, the kids get the benefit of someone who is passionate about sports and is a trained sports specialist for the other days as well. I can help with things like taking them to fixtures and have started an after-school boxing club.

Francis: I knew I wanted to be involved in sport one way or another, whether that was teaching, coaching, or sports massage, but I wasn’t quite sure what to do after finishing college. I did think about a degree but I wanted to start my career straight away and make a difference.

My mum saw the apprenticeship opportunity advertised at Hare Street Primary School. It’s only ten minutes away from where I live so I thought I’d give it a go. I’m so glad I did because in an apprenticeship, you're training in the role, you learn so much from the course and the professionals around you, so for me it’s a much more effective way to learn than studying at university.

Francis: I support the PE teacher to deliver the national curriculum. On Fridays, the kids go out to fixtures that are arranged by the Schools Sports Partnership. All the Harlow schools come together and we do a different sports competition, basketball, football, dodge ball, swimming galas each week.

We also offer cross-country training. I lead some of the after-school enrichment clubs and I also help out when needed, in the classroom. 

Francis: I think sport in general is just really important for kids nowadays because when they're at home, they're sitting on laptops, computer games, they're not going out running around with their friends anymore. Having some time in the day to get moving is so good for your mental health whether you’re a child or an adult and it helps you return ready to learn.

We have some pupils with special educational needs who struggle to focus on their work, but when they come out here to do PE in the playground everything changes. There’s one pupil in particular who is really focused when he’s doing PE and wants to achieve everything that the other children are doing. I can help him see that he can achieve at school and I hope that will inspire him with his classroom work as well.

Our after-school clubs are another really important way to help build children’s self-esteem, resilience and discipline by having something to focus on. My school is in a relatively deprived area, we have a lot of kids on free school meals. I think they all need an opportunity to be able to go and do something because a lot of the parents don't have the money to take them to clubs outside of school. They might never get the chance to experience it again.

Francis: It’s going really well and a lot of the kids absolutely love it! Some come and have a go, decide it’s not for them, but lots keep coming back.

It was my headteacher’s idea to start with the girls actually, and he bought them all boxing gloves. I totally supported this because the boys are football mad, but the girls don't really have anything that they're that focused on sports-wise.

Francis: Boxing is not for everyone, but what we want is for girls to get used to trying new sports. Our children are at the age where this is still possible.

Getting them started from a younger age is nice because they are more likely to stick with it as they get older. I started boxing quite late and had to step into a male-dominated environment. There were other girls on the competitive circuit who were boxing of course, but many of them had parents who had coached them, they’d all been doing it from a much younger age. I had to work hard to catch up. When you are a teenage girl you can feel more self-conscious about trying new sports, so it’s important to give girls opportunities to try things as early as possible.

I think it’s important for the boys and the girls to have someone to look up to, so they can see there’s both men and women achieving in sport, it's a real positive for them to have that.

Who knows, if the girls in the after-school club like it, then they might come up to my boxing club when they are old enough, that would be incredible.

Francis: Discipline and respect are massively important in boxing. It’s obviously great for physical coordination, focusing energy, and following instructions, particularly for younger kids, but developing the right mindset is also a big thing.

If you stick with the sport as you get older and maybe join a club, this develops even more. For me personally it’s about putting disagreements to one side and refocusing on the goal ahead. It's happened quite a lot, you have a fight, you think you've won, the judges see it the other way. But you can't let that get you down. You've just got to keep training.

Francis: I don't think you can get any kind of training for a career in education where you're going to learn as much as actually being in a school. The apprenticeship is great as you are also doing your online work and research that you can directly apply in real life.

It’s so much better than just sitting at a computer screen or lecture theatre, because you're actually getting that on the job experience and continuous feedback from your school mentor and ESF tutor.

I’ve really enjoyed learning about the national curriculum and some of the theory, for example about positive behaviour management, has been really handy, but the practical central training days have been the best. My tutor, Henry, has also been amazing and provided support throughout.

I started my apprenticeship because I wanted to be actively involved in sport, start my career and make a difference in children’s lives right away - it’s definitely given me that opportunity.