Year 10 Work Experience

Last week Year 10 were on work experience at various placements of people’s choice. Most selected work places that they expected could involve things they enjoy doing, or a job that they could consider going into when they are older. In our class everyone succeeded in gaining a beneficial, enjoyable experience from this week of work. Here are a few examples:

Harriet Haworth
For my work experience I spent the week at vibe 101. Throughout the week I participated in many different activities; from writing the news, to quizzing the general public about subjects such as Big Brother. I also helped to make an advert and saw all different areas of the radio station. There is a lot more work to put in to broadcasting than you may think. So even if you don’t want to speak on the radio, maybe you could help to make the adverts or write the news. Unfortunately I did not manage to actually speak on the radio but I did have a very enjoyable week. I have gained a lot of experience from this placement and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Stephanie Cichowska
For my work experience I worked at a Graphics Design Company in Bath called Portico. The Department I worked in specialised in stationery such as greetings cards, wrapping paper etc.
Throughout the week, I was set a mini project of designing and creating my own cards by using a design program on an Apple Mac Computer. It was very interesting as I didn’t realise how many stages there were to producing the final product.
I found the week highly rewarding as I was given plenty of opportunities to use my own initiative, work as part of a team and try out my creative talents.
The people there made me feel very welcome and I was always encouraged to ask questions if I felt I didn’t understand something.
I would recommend this placement to anyone interested in a future career in design.

Tom Pollitt
On work experience I went back to my old primary school to help out with the teaching. I was able to help out with both sport and academic lessons as well as extra curricular activities.
I was great to meet the younger children as, I believe, Mr Fraser found when he came to visit. It gave a different perspective on the education that we get here at Colston’s. It was also good to see what both schools are like from a different angle and to appreciate how much you improve over the years of education.
As you can see from our own teachers, teaching is a very stressful job. Although helping people makes you feel good, you are working with people who are entirely dependent upon you. For this reason I found my work experience very tiring but at the end of it all, rewarding.
Therefore, although a difficult job, teaching is certainly fulfilling and I would definitely recommend it to anyone in the future.

Daniel Morris
When I was at the Pink House and Films@59 I never felt bored because everyone there was so easy to talk to and they all liked a laugh every now and then.
My favourite parts of my stay was making my own edited tape and also ‘Running’- I’ve never made as many teas and coffees before as I did there!
There was nothing there which we did that I didn’t like.
Overall it was a great place to go for work experience, and I would definitely recommend it for someone who is interested in Media.

Ellena Kkolos
I really enjoyed my work experience with the Topshop managers at the Mall. I was able to work with the different managers in both Topshop and Topman. Working with the style advisor and the merchandising managers was what I enjoyed most because I was able to work with the trends in store, such things as the window displays and also the layout of the products. I learned how to work well with people much older than myself.

Marcella Pinto
During my work experience I went to the Sugar magazine in London. I was given different tasks every day and these included writing book reviews for the magazine, writing real life stories, editing their brand new website and sorting Sugar’s post. I was place with different sections of the magazine throughout the week. These included the web department, the features department, the art department and finally the fashion and beauty department, which definitely was my favourite. Here the five people on work experience provided the fashion and beauty team with a teenager perspective.
I definitely enjoyed getting an insight into the magazine the most. I have always wondered just how they put the magazine together in the three weeks they have and going to Sugar definitely answered all of my questions. Meeting the other 4 people on work experience was also great. We could often work together as a team or work against each other in competitions; one of these included designing the best front cover for the magazine. One of the highlights has got to be when they told me my book review would be printed in next month’s edition of the magazine, this made my hard work worthwhile.
I have always dreamt of being a journalist and now that I have done this work experience it has made me even more certain that this is the career path for me.
I had great fun during my week, and would definitely recommend this placement to other people. If you are interested in the media and journalism then there is nowhere better to go!

George Watkins
A worthwhile experience that definitely helped give me a good insight into the life of a professional rugby player. I didn’t expect their lives to be like they were and learnt a lot about their physical and mental requirements. A work experience that I certainly recommend.

As you can see, it was not only practical skills connected with the job that were learnt, but also social skills, and a sense of responsibility, independence, and confidence.

We hope that the current Year 9’s will make an effort to carefully choose a placement which they will get the most out of and enjoy their work experience next year as much as we did.