I am responsible for delivering high quality rugby lessons to over 100 children during the weekends. I am responsible for the planning of the sessions and I tailor them for each age range. Parents often accompany the children and I have to also include them for some of the time. My classes cater for up to twenty children from age 2 to 8 years. I have to take into account health and safety precautions. I have taken a course in Paediatric First Aid to support my work. I am aware of the need to motivate the children and offer a wide range of skill building activities. I am conscious of including all children whatever their ability and making each one feel successful. The children are excited to join in every week and I am often asked for as the preferred coach.As I have also been taking a degree in Sports and Exercise Science over the last 4 years, this has improved my knowledge in many areas and helped to inform my session planning. I have learnt more about movement in general and been able to use this for my rugby sessions. I am more aware of the myriad of other skills which children acquire through participation in sporting activity - confidence building, social skills, ability to focus, listening skills, language comprehension, numeracy in addition to the more obvious physical development and benefits.In addition to teaching children I am also responsible for management of other staff. I have assistant coaches who I train and supervise. I am also responsible for all the equipment. I am required to maintain professionalism at all times and punctuality, communication and organisational skills are a ket aspect of the job.

Although this post was not sports related it enabled me to gain further managerial experience. After a short while as a letting agent, I was promoted to property manager for Watson Real Estate. I had a portfolio of around 150 properties and I was in charge of managing relations between owners and tenants. The position required good organisational skills, patience and an ability to relate to the clients. I was the first point of contact for both the owners and the tenants, with any problems they had and I was responsible for finding solutions to those problems. Inspections of the properties were carried out every 10-14 weeks and if issues arose, these would be dealt with swiftly. This role was a challenging one at first, but it soon became second nature to me. I loved the experience and was sad to leave.

My role of sports co-ordinator involved the promotion of sports for health and well being in poorer areas of the Manawatu. This involved advising teachers, recruiting volunteers and working with sports coaches to develop a network of sustainable sports programmes. I visited primary schools to set up 'off the grid' sports programmes. I set up sports programmes such as handball, tchouckball, polo hockey, korfball and sports native to New Zealand, e.g. ki-o-rahi. I liaised with teachers, coaches and volunteers to target 'hard-to-reach' groups. I was also responsible for setting up educational programs to inform children of the benefits of sport as well as fostering a love of exercise. I further supported this role by coaching and teaching a variety of after school sports, for children aged 2-12 years old. This was a fantastic experience and one that motivated me to gain a degree in the area of sport.

Over the NZ summer I had the opportunity to work for Watson Real Estate as their letting agent. This was an extremely enjoyable position and I was always on the move. I was required to show prospective tenants rental properties the company managed. I had to have good knowledge of the properties I was presenting, which could be upwards of 50 in a week.This was my first taste of a position in real estate and it was a great experience.