I haven’t shot since the county match! Appalling! I will try and remedy that, but I cannot see it being this week either!
It’s been a week of meetings, clubs, county, regional, and topped off by a great weekend catching up with friends and supporting amazing archers including my own daughter who blows me away daily. Those who know her well, know what she’s gone through this last 18 months and now she is working her way through 3 weeks of mock exams and has not had much time with her bow, but it’s humbling to see her standing on the shooting line 🤗 my children are my heroes for certain.
Trying to plan some shoots to help me get motivated and also fathom my schedule of events for the next 6 months with existing and new groups and it’s exciting though very busy looking 😂
Jack’s birthday this week and lots of prep for a very busy Christmas with family up north, at home and working the day job. Give a little thought to those who maybe feel lonely or vulnerable at this time of year, check on those you can 🤗
Right, that’s it, short and sweet this week due to assignments for my level 3, my level 4 and some planning for some safeguarding meetings – sleep? Who needs sleep 😜
Take care of you and keep pinging me those messages about how you are and what you are doing, I love them. 😍
The individual is at the heart of everything that I do and I choose people to work with me who do the same, it allows me to put the right coach in the right group.
A focus for me will always be welfare and safeguarding because without this nothing else will function.
I thought I would explain how that impacts my week, so in the last 3 weeks I have:
Attended the latest East Midlands Welfare virtual meeting, been interviewed on BBC radio Northamptonshire as part of the day of disability special, delivered my last session for 2024 at DISC, attended Corby Archers to deliver archery England federation cross awards to their juniors, attended a virtual meeting with white ribbon UK looking at gender based violence in education settings, attended an event hosted by the children’s society and Ivison Trust on the topic of child exploitation for sports clubs and organisations, attended a workshop hosted by BEAT around eating disorders and the festive period and joined in on the reclaim the night march in Northampton.
The other stuff I do, go to work, shoot, manage and review events delivered by coaches on behalf of Integr8archery CIC and spend time with my family, including my regular weekend with mum, all continued too.
Not everything I do sees me post photos, and it may not all seem exciting but it is all very much worth my time to keep everyone safe.
See you all on a range soon and if you are about, at the indoor nationals for certain ❤️🏹
lots of admin and meetings this week, 2025 will see some new groups start which I am very much looking forward to.
I didn’t get to deliver any archery in person but love hearing how everything is going from coaches working with me, and I love the stories of success and achieving on and off the range, it can be what gets me through the meetings some days 😉
I haven’t managed to shoot my own arrows this week either 🫣 lots of work and some shifts to help out at another house, but a surprise visit and full inspection from ofsted saw us get a string good across all categories which is the reward for the hard work and certainly some intense recent months, my job is a privilege and I love it but it is exhausting mentally and emotionally at times.
Add to all of the working on my level 3 in children’s residential care and level 4 in CSE means the week has flown by!
Along with setting up my JustGiving page now I have confirmed my wing walking for next June and I am so grateful to those who have already started donating 😌
Right I am off to work and just a reminder that this week is my working weekend so I will be pretty much unavailable from Friday evening until Monday. Enjoy your weekend and let me know how everything is going ❤️🏹
This week is definitely feeling that summer is behind us now, highlight of the week for me was Saturday with my active group, this week in Corby, Rose came with me to meet everyone and as always we had a great time with lots of laughter. This group is about getting out of the house, socialising and keeping moving. There is such a great sense of friendship and it’s an excellent way to spend Saturday mornings. As we drove over there was some very heavy rain which did impact numbers somewhat but those of us who were there had great fun and after shooting enjoyed some lovely snacks and tea before going our separate ways. Thank you to every one who came because we know many were also busy with Diwali 🪔 preparations.
As it’s been half term there’s been time to reflect on the various schools and these always make me smile, some have been with me since 2021 some have just come on board. A couple are looking to grow and another couple are looking at leaving, or at least suspending their activity. I am grateful to everyone for letting me help support them and the opportunities they provide and I know that schools are often pulled in a variety of directions so I understand all of the decisions. Full decisions will be made with them over the Christmas holiday as it will mark the end of term.
I hope your Diwali, Halloween and/or bonfire night celebrations are all going well and everyone is safe.
Wow, what a week! I wasn’t allowed to shoot, long story but I am ok now and as long as I promise to listen to what’s happening with my body I am allowed to pick up my bow 🥳
but I didn’t sit around and do nothing, I have been talking with a friend for a few months about some plans they have for some space they want to use and how they want to use it, I have been over to take a long look and aside from learning that our definitions of the word shed are very different 😂 the space is amazing and it was a pleasure to hear her plans and ideas and a privilege to be asked my opinions. It is going to a amazing to watch and to be invited to help and support her – wow 🥰🏹
exciting times to come without a doubt and I cannot wait to share what she is doing because I am incredibly proud of her 😘
some reviews of projects, always, always a great time to look at how things are working and what is successful and what needs changing and in some cases do some things need to stop.
then an amazing afternoon sat with 2 young people – ages 9 and 11 and listening to how they want to help their peers, one has recently started secondary school and wants to show people how sport can be inclusive the other has just become a wellbeing ambassador in their primary school and both want to show how sport can be a positive influence on mental health. To listen to young people talk like this is so motivating because whilst inclusion, equality and wellbeing are my driving forces there are some days it feels like I might be swimming against the tide and these conversations give me hope for the future 🥰
Again, I look forward to being able to share news and updates on their plans over time.
indoors has started for most of us, which I hate but I am also pleased considering the flooding issues in Northamptonshire at the moment.
The anniversaries always blow my mind! I doubt it will ever stop, I love looking at the numbers when I hit those dates too. I love my sport and I am passionate about inclusion and access for all. It’s hard work some days but those numbers remind me it’s absolutely worth it all.
This week so the thing I really hate, having to cancel, weather is uncontrollable and I have to reassess constantly and risk assessments are incredibly important, the predicted weather didn’t arrive until after we would have shot but the county has been mostly under water since the rain started and I still stand by the decisions I made every time I cancelled.
Lots of meetings this week, the beauty of online and the ability to divert around closed roads means they still went ahead.
Looking forward to the next few weeks and some new things starting which is always positive. Indoor season looming which I hate and look to ways to motivate myself and I have signed up to the virtual archery league as in previous seasons, it keeps me shooting for sure.
Time set aside has let me get into the backlog of Archery England English Federation Cross claims and I am loving the messages from people receiving them ❤️🏹 thank you to everyone for the patience as I get this all organised.
Lots of planning meetings and this week will see the first session delivered for a new group, always exciting to get something off the ground 🥳
I have been a little out of contact due to some things happening at work which have had me doing some extra hours and also meaning when I have been at home I am shattered. I also swapped my weekend on this rota to allow me to attend the flight competitions later in the month so I worked this whole weekend which seems to have annoyed some archers?
Thank you to those who have been patient when waiting for me, to those who were not, apologies but remember archery and the many roles I have are volunteer so whilst I give 20 – 30 hours a week, demanding time isn’t going to help me find more!
I have also got a few safeguarding related things going on, these take my time, rightly so in my opinion but to give you some perspective I haven’t managed to pick up my own bow and shoot my own arrows since I returned from Dunster and I haven’t picked up a paintbrush since the weekend I went to the event at Nottingham so no, I don’t think I owe anyone an explanation for allowing myself an hour to go to a painting class on Thursday 🤔
Right off to make sure everything is in my archery bag for my session on Friday when we will finally get the tweaking done that we have known needs doing since the session we had at Christmas! So again, no I don’t need you to tell me what needs doing, trust me we know, but Martin and I always give everyone else our time 🫣 our own archery never comes first!
See you all soon 😊☕️🍪 and thank you for letting me get my moaning off my chest 😂
You are all awesome and I give you all everything that I can but sometimes I think you need reminding there’s a lot going on in the world 🙃
It didn’t take very long after getting home to feel like Dunster was a distant memory! Home Monday evening and back to work Tuesday for a late, sleep, early shift 🫣 great to see the young people but emotionally exhausted by the time I got home.
Resilience – Resilience is the ability to move through and grow from difficult times. It’s a skill you develop over time from the lessons and experiences you absorb as you grow up and face challenges.
Well I have that, thankfully!
A chat about my week and the issues I had in Dunster, sees the beginnings of a plan formed for moving forward, great stuff! A few weeks also where flight becomes my focus and so that will help me relax and process all that Dunster was. If we go back to 2022 I had planned a week in Dunster, since this was the 150th I made it two. 2025? I’m thinking at most, longbow day but unsure about going back, time will tell. It’s been great for teaching me things, for which I am grateful.
Whilst away I had attended a number of online meetings and stayed on top of messages so that made life much simpler on returning home, especially with the attention having to be firmly on work.
lots planned over coming weeks so I will be busy at least 😂
Thank you for the messages last week for the 2nd birthday of Integr8archery CIC, I never take support for granted, and I loved all of the photos of cake! 🍰
It was a busy week and certainly hit hard by the issues that saw my peak flow tank to emergency levels, forever grateful to the NHS and the care they give. Thank you to those who allowed me to make adjustments to meetings and calls and to those who have had to listen to me squeak all week! For those who have known me a long time my Dysphonia is nothing new and the use of steroids and nebulisers always trigger issues but some will recall the 2 periods of speech therapy I have had to have in the past, the good news is that with the daily exercises and reduction in steroids things are slowly returning to normal.
Particularly great news as I will be helping Northamptonshire Sport deliver the amazing event that always sees the culmination of the school games, schools enter their teams for each sport that they have taken part in over the previous months. 10 schools have entered a team for their first ever archery competition – an indoor short metric. Exciting stuff and I cannot wait to share the competition element of our sport. Hopefully I will get a new photo of me and Blaze too, last one was taken 2 years ago! Still would love to see Blaze and Fletch on the range together – maybe one day!
One of the hardest things is having to draw a line under projects that aren’t working for whatever reason, this week has seen a couple of those decisions and it’s why I carry out regular reviews and keep stats on everything, allows an impartial decision to be made. I never say never, and where possible we have returned to projects and restarted after some down time, so who knows what the future holds?
New dates put in the calendar to see the rest of 2024 committed to some existing collaborations and also 3 new community groups in the calendar for multiple sessions, exciting – let’s hope we get fair weather for the new groups to sustain their enthusiasm until they get into the routine.
JNOC this weekend, and as I have taken the summer off from AGB competition volunteering it will allow me to be a parent and also to support a number of young people who always come and find me on the range. Time to catch up with friends too and I will definitely be carrying lots of hugs with me 🤗
Much of my preparations have been done for going off to Dunster week, so looking forward to this but expecting rubbish shooting as I just seem unable to get a consistent draw following all of the changes. Dunster offers the ability to have 8 days of shooting with a variety of things on offer, last year I took part in everything except clout. This year I have decided on 5 days and the 2 final days I have opted to make those the national rounds rather than the longer days that I love. Health and balance is important, if I want to go I have to try and be sensible!
With some understanding from colleagues I have managed to get time from work to allow me to attend two of this seasons flight competitions – I love flight it is my favourite of all shooting.
Have a good week and I look forward to seeing you all soon ❤️🏹
This has been a crazy week between getting my portfolio and presentation ready for assessment in the first week of June, dealing with meetings and project reviews, including a couple of transatlantic calls. Alway exciting to hear how the young people there are getting on! Super proud.
Went north for a couple of days for mum’s birthday, family time is always amazing and you are all well in the routine that I give one weekend in 4 that I am there – thank you as always 🥰
Not much to share really as a lot of this weeks has been behind the scenes but week 101 has loads going on including the work weekend so a reminder that from Friday afternoon I will be unavailable until late Monday.
Thank you for the photos and updates I have had sent over and the kind thoughts when I had to withdraw from my competition on Sunday. 🤗
