A teenage apprentice at Loughborough College has been shortlisted for a major national Student of the Year award after a meteoric rise in teaching.
Matt Moir, 20, from Market Harborough, has been shortlisted for Apprentice of the Year at the Student of the Year Awards run by the UK Association of Colleges. The 8th February 2021 event is one of the biggest student awards in the further education calendar.
He was shortlisted after rocketing through the ranks at Little Bowden Primary School in Leicestershire, where he started last year as an apprentice but quickly found himself leading classes, working with SEND children and becoming a YouTube star during the first national lockdown in March 2020.
Matt made such an impact during his apprenticeship at Little Bowden that he is now a permanent member of staff and, at the age of 19, was entrusted with helping develop the school’s approach to PE and leading PE lessons and sports clubs.
Matt said: “I very quickly started being given more responsibility and challenges. I was trusted to plan, lead and deliver my very own PE lessons and given the opportunity to lead my own sports clubs before, during and after school across a variety of different year groups and teaching a variety of different sports.
“With each lesson and each club I taught, I gained an extra ounce of valuable experience which helped me grow and develop in my role as a school sports coach. As the year went on, I was helping to organise events, school fixtures and helping to run some of the competitions.”
On top of his exceptional work at the school, for which he received glowing appraisals from senior staff, Matt was also chosen as a joint group rep for Loughborough College’s School Sport Health and Wellbeing Apprenticeship.
He has been a role model amongst his peers, always supporting classmates to develop their physical coaching skills, find solutions to challenges in their workplaces, and helping them complete written assignments.
From the start of his course, Matt pushed himself to develop and grow, excelling in all areas to win the College’s own “Apprentice of the Year” award.
Sunny Chavda, Matt’s tutor, said: “Matt reminds me of Cristiano Ronaldo - regardless of whether he is one of the best at what he does, he is still willing to give his all to be the best that he can be.”
One of Matt’s highlights of 2020 included creating a series of Stay Active at Home video PE lessons for pupils at Little Bowden Primary School and created ‘Active Plans’ for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 children which included top tips such as making your own healthy ice cream, researching different types of food and creating a rainbow fruit pizza for the NHS!
Sunny added: “Matt really took this opportunity to push to ensure that the learners were continuing to stay active whilst at home. Once the schools started to open back up, PE was an area of difficulty due to social distancing and use of equipment, so he took on the role as a teacher assistant whilst continuing to deliver active sessions during break and lunchtimes, again showing that he went above and beyond what was expected of him.”