Lauren Jones a Year 10 pupil at Whitley Bay High School joined LP Dance in Education for a weeks work experience. Here’s what she thought of her week with us……
My experience with LP Dance in Education has been an eye opener. Each session was totally different seeing the way different groups of young children act with this sort of activity. Before this week, I thought through dance you could only get a degree then begin teaching but this week has made me realise that you are able to do so much more within teaching. It has definitely made me reconsider what I want to do as a career.
Day one: I was nervous as anyone would be doing something they’ve never really done before, but as soon as we met the first set of children at Kids 1st Gosforth, I felt more relaxed. I made a lot of little friends and I thoroughly enjoyed helping them get moving.
The same happened in Kids 1st Hexham all the children had so much energy, which made me feel even more comfortable. The King Edward Primary after school club was a different experience yet again. The pupils were older so they were able to do a proper warm up and they showed me their dance which I was surprised at how well they performed it as they were still so young.
Day two & three: I spent the morning at Laura’s, going through the business and how she got to where she is now. I found it exciting how many stages she went through to get here after having many changes in career. She then gave me the task of writing a profile about myself for her to advertise on facebook. In the afternoon I was with Eve at Kids 1st Quorum which was really good the children were all just so lovely.
Day four: We were at Battle Hill primary school, and they are taking part in the Mouth of the Tyne festival. My responsibility is to lead the school during the parade, so we learnt two sections, the carnival chorus, which every school performs, but also a section inspired by hairdressers and the musical hairspray. I was then in charge of leading the dance all the way through as I will be in charge on the day, I was nervous but gradually I became more confident with the counting and leading the group.
Day five: This day was definitely the busiest! Starting the day at St. Cuthbert’s primary where we set the dance for the Mouth Of The Tyne festival, I found this one of the quite challenging as the children were very tired (it had been a very busy week in school for them all) so it meant the leaders were having to put more energy in to try and get them motivated.
I really enjoyed my time at Woodlawn School, it was amazing to see the children-enjoying dance so much in their own personal ways. I even made a little friend. At busy bees, I made more little friends in the first class and it was good seeing so many, so excited to dance.
After was the babies, who were adorable but challenging because at that age they aren’t able too much. Lastly was Monkseaton Middle School, they had started a contemporary dance so to begin with we did a warm up then they showed me their dance, which was very good!
The children started making up counts of eight to add onto the end so Eve and I went round and gave ideas and helped to make sure their section was long enough.
Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my week, nowhere else I’d rather have gone, the week has definitely made me rethink what I want to do as a career.
Thank you to Laura and Eve who have made me feel very welcome!
Written by Lauren Jones
(Year 10 Pupil at Whitley Bay High School, North Tyneside)
