Meet Sadie Miller

Sadie Miller is currently undertaking her Level 3 Teaching Assistant Apprenticeship with a PE focus at Colnbrook School, a primary special school in Hertfordshire. As a young apprentice who wants to eventually become a PE teacher, she told us how working at a special school has given her invaluable skills as well as firing a passion for making PE as inclusive as possible.

“After secondary school, I started a sports psychology course at a college in Watford. I liked the coaching side of it and found it helpful, but it ultimately wasn’t what I wanted to do long-term. I knew I wanted to go into teaching eventually. A friend from my football team mentioned that her mum worked at this school and told me about a PE apprenticeship vacancy.“

Definitely. I want to go into secondary school teaching eventually, so I thought it would be great to start with younger children to see how they develop and learn before they reach that stage. We cater to a whole range of needs here, including autism, Down syndrome, global delay, ADHD, and other complex needs.  I believe neurodivergent children deserve every opportunity to express themselves however they can, and a great way to do that is through sports.

“The biggest thing for me has been learning how to communicate. Many of our children are non-verbal. Through the apprenticeship, I’ve learned more about using Makaton and visual symbols. In a PE lesson, especially, you have to be able to communicate what you want them to do, in order to keep them safe.”

“I’d say the child development side of things. One of the research tasks I’ve just done is about what happens at every age and stage. It’s a little bit different here because some of our children are delayed, but you can still see what the next step might be and how to help them get there.”

“It’s seeing the progress. For children with coordination difficulties, we might work on walking along a bench or jumping off things. At the start of a term, they might need to hold my hand, but by the end, they can do it independently. It also helps them regulate. If a child comes from a phonics class feeling “wiggly” or jumpy, PE gives them that outlet. They go back to the classroom feeling calm and ready to learn.”

“Yes. I’d like to become a PE teacher in a secondary setting, but I really want to stay closely involved with SEND. Mainstream schools often lack the level of support for SEND children that special schools have. I want to bring all the knowledge I’ve gained through my apprenticeship into a mainstream environment to make PE as inclusive as possible. Everyone should be able to participate in physical activity for their wellbeing, resilience and sense of belonging.”

“It works for me because I’m a hands-on learner – I work better doing things rather than having someone tell me. If there’s something I don’t understand in a research task, I can ask someone here or see it happen in real-time in a class. I get three hours every Tuesday morning for my research tasks, which is plenty of time to stay on top of everything.”

“This is my first job, so moving from a school environment to a professional working environment was a big shift. I’ve learned how to conduct myself professionally and how to work as part of a team.”

“If you don’t want to be sitting in a lecture theatre or doing formal study all the time, I’d definitely recommend an apprenticeship. Everything you learn, you get to apply the very same day. Experience is so critical when you are looking for a job and that’s what the apprenticeship gives you. When you see a child struggle with something and you can work out how to help them, and then see them have that breakthrough – it’s just incredible.”