Jack Whyte

Starting in 2023, I have been privileged to be one of SportScotland's first Active Campus Co-Ordinators. I was tasked with starting the Active Campus project at UHI Moray from scratch, and I am immensely proud of where the project is sitting 2 years on. When I begun post, there was no organised student physical activity occurring on campus. Fast forward 2 years, and we now have over 100 participants active per week and 3 specific sport teams who compete locally, regionally and nationally. Over the 2024/25 academic year, my work enabled 2688 participations, from over 200 distinct participants. While proud of our participation numbers, they are not the only indicator of value. In this role, I have also worked closely with key partners such as the Moray Community Sport Hub, to create bespoke targeted interventions for non-engaging students. This includes the Moray Pride Sports Hub, aimed at LGBT students who were previously inactive. This project has seen a huge effort put into developing a pathway to community based participation at local clubs, and college based participation in the Active Campus project, for students who identify as LGBT. I have also completed projects which compliment our academic offering at UHI Moray, leading the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award for entry level sport students. This provided a secondary award, on top of the students main Level 5 course.

In this role I have:

• Played a key role in project management teams for successful project delivery.
• Promoted diversity and inclusion in local sport communities through targeted initiatives.
• Managed volunteer teams, ensuing smooth running of programme.
• Organised regular events for fostering student engagement and interaction.
• Negotiated agreements with external partners effectively.
• Monitoring and Evaluating data to make informed decisions.

Within my role as an Active School Assistant with South Ayrshire Council, my main duty was to engage targeted groups and individuals and use physical activity as a vehicle for positive change within their lives. These target groups were from various backgrounds from refugees, adults experiencing social isolation and primary school children with additional support needs. It was a key part of my role to build programmes and tailor activities to suit the needs of the individuals being targeted. These programmes had to work towards a tangible and manageable end goal, which was evaluated against specific outcomes at the projects end. An example of one such project was in a local primary school, supporting children with additional support needs to participate within mainstream physical education. My knowledge and understanding of the schools curriculum for excellence was key in planning and developing these projects in the school environment.

This role gave me experience:

• Coordinated with teachers, improving the implementation of intervention strategies.
• Implemented intervention strategies for behavioural issues in children.
• Streamlined decision-making process with comprehensive data analysis.
• Utilised effective communication skills whilst working closely with vulnerable individuals.

My role as a residential Sports Coach at Inverclyde, required me to deliver a variety of team sports, racket sports and outdoor activities. Furthermore, this role has provided me with experience in creating unique and individual programmes for different residential groups. When creating these programmes, it was important to ensure they were staffed appropriately, and tailored to the specific needs of the group. Within this role, I enjoyed creating positive relationships with young people, and thrived at getting the most out of each individual.

• Coaching a variety of sports and leading activities
• Building relationships with young people
• Creating sports programmes which cater to individual needs

I delivered football sessions for Rangers Soccer Academy across Scotland as well as school sessions for Rangers Charity Foundation. These school sessions included an educational classroom based work shop. These workshops included the show racism the red card project, teaching children about racism and homophobia in sport and how to combat this. This project typically ended with a school celebration with all schools involved in the project meeting together on zoom which I was tasked with co-ordinating. I have also had experience supporting Rangers Charity Foundations award winning autism football project.

Co-Ordinating and leading football sessions in Glasgow's West End.

In this role I was responsible for:

• Provided support and guidance to volunteers
• Organisation and set up of sessions
• Session planning