Enhancement Week - Building a community of learners

The nature of sports degree courses inherently has a practical bias to the curriculum in which students are taught theory which they, in turn, are able to demonstrate though practical activities. The application of theory to practise and visa versa has been seen as an essential student development pursuit in preparation of them for the sports industry. As a consequence, course leaders have traditionally sought opportunities to enhance their curriculum by including short sports training courses as added value. However, the organisation of this across the Sports Coaching and Development programme has often been disjointed and therefore has lost it impact on student development. Furthermore, students have request more added value opportunities via the NSS and Loop feedback. In order to address this a project has been launched to consolidate the provision of these training courses across all three years of the program. Three specific weeks in the academic year were identified initiating in the induction week and with one other week in each of the taught semesters. These weeks were entitled ‘enhancement weeks’. A delivery schedule was initially developed to provide students with specific training courses for example Child Safeguarding, first aid and sports leaders awards which related to their year of study. In addition to these courses a wider remit was provided to accommodate the specific needs of the year groups. For example, the third-year students being provided with guidance on PGCE application and to availability of transitional opportunities following graduations. The students also were given the provided with field trips to promote building a community of learners, which was directed by the student experience plan. The overall evaluation has been positive from both students and staff. The experience of this project has provided awareness of benefits to the students and highlighted additional areas for development.