Posted: 11/02/16
Tiny tots get sporty
Children at a Mansfield nursery are enjoying tailor-made activity sessions, thanks to sports students at West Nottinghamshire College.
Children from Butterflies Day Nursery enjoying sessions delivered by West Nottinghamshire College sports students.
Three and four-year-olds who attend the college’s Butterflies Day Nursery have been taking part in weekly classes designed and delivered by NVQ Level 2 Activity Leadership students.
The pre-school group, who are children of college staff and students and families in the local community, have been learning games such as ‘What Time is it Mr Wolf?’ and doing team-based activities to help develop their social skills and self-confidence while gaining the benefits of physical exercise.
The classes are equipping students with the skills and knowledge to run tailored training programmes for specific age groups, and come on the back of activities delivered in local schools.
Held over four weeks, the sessions for the nursery children are taking place in the college’s state-of-the-art sports hall at its Derby Road campus and run until the end of February, when Level 1 students will take over with their own bespoke programme.
Seventeen-year-old student Jack Giles, from Ladybrook, Mansfield, said: “I love the fact we work together as a team to devise the activities and then deliver them the next day, so it’s really fast-paced.
“The main thing is for the children to see it as fun, but at the same time we’re developing their co-ordination, balancing, catching and listening skills, because we give them instructions which they then have to act upon.
“We’re also enhancing our own team-working and leadership abilities, and because our job as coaches is to act as role models for the children, we have to ensure we communicate effectively and act professionally at all times, which is great preparation for employment.”
NVQ sport and coaching tutor Rachael Evans said: “This is giving students first-hand experience of working with different client groups and adapting their activity programmes according to people’s age and ability – just some of the skills they’ll need out in industry.
“They’ve discovered working with children can be more difficult than it sounds due to their short attention spans, so it’s been good to see students take the initiate and revise their sessions when needed, which is all part of the learning curve.”
