Robyn, Megan, and Katy - Work Experience

Day One

We are all from Lady Lumley's sixth form in Pickering; Megan is here for two days, Katy for one week, and Robyn for two weeks. This is our first day of work experience at Ryedale Folk Museum. None of us really knew what to expect but we were pleasantly surprised by the welcoming staff and casual nature of the museum. We spent our first day shadowing Bex and Emma as they led actvities for a group of Amotherby school children. It was very interesting and enjoyable as we saw the hands-on approach to teaching, and we assisted the children in experiencing Victorian-style washing and Tudor house building. We also had to explore the museum and familiarise ourselves with the exhibits, and the animals. Overall it has been an enjoyable day!

Day Two

Today we had a visit from another school group, and we were able to help them take part in several new activities, including Viking Pottery and Crofter's Cottage (although this had to be relocated due to a torrential downpour!). Megan helped out at the front of house and assisted a coach party, and Robyn and Katy prepared for the Victorian Chores session which they will be leading for a school group on Thursday. Despite the rain, it was another fun day.

Day Three

Megan is no longer with us :( But we have had a fact-filled and interesting day. This morning we were set the task of creating activities for the upcoming Festival of British Archaeology, which is taking place from Saturday 18th July to Sunday 2nd August. This was a challenge as neither of us know very much about archaeology, however we are learning new things all the time. This afternoon we observed two new sessions: Tudor Handwriting, and Tudor Medicine (including creating plague remedies) - the school group really enjoyed these activities. At the end of the day we had another rehearsal for the Victorian Chores session which we will be leading tomorrow, hopefully in costume!

Day Four

Today we dressed up and led our first session: the Victorian chores in the White Cottage. We had a group of Year 1 children from Hemlington Hall school, who were split into four groups. We had to take one group at a time and talk to them about the cottage, show them the different rooms, and help them to beat rugs, scrub steps, and make toast over the fire. This was great fun for us and for the kids, and although we were a little pushed for time, there were no major incidents! After cleaning up all of the materials from the sessions we fed the pigs the leftover bread, and then continued our planning for Tractor and Engine Day.

Day Five

Today we had a more relaxed day, as there was only a small school group and we did not have to help them. We have done several jobs: we helped to finish the preparations for Tractor and Engine Day, which is happening this Sunday, by creating activities for children (i.e. building mini tractors!). We also continued making our trail around the museum for the Festival of British Archaeology, which involved a lot of printing, guillotining (Robyn's favourite) and laminating. Finally, we were taking care of the animals at the museum: we visited the sheep, and fed the pigs and chickens; and Katy said farewell to the museum.

Day Six (Robyn)

I'm all on my own now but its been really quite fun because there's been loads of people in helping with STEM people in and thankfully there was a lovely fire man in. Today there were about 150 children in from the surrounding area. I also over saw a meeting between Mike and some students and took notes on the enterprise day that will be taking place on Wednessday.

Day Seven

Again the people from the STEM fair were here again so the first thing I had to do was help them set up and get the children to there first activity. I then spent the rest of the day leasing Norton and Ryedale schools for the enterprise day and getting some things organised, like where each activity is going to take place and then back ups if the weather turns bad. however most of these jobs had to be done once that children had left and weren't possible to do before then. so when the kids left I helped Andy set up the marquee, this took a lot longer then I thought it would, unfortunately I wasn't able to get my other jobs done.

Day Eight

We have had the enterprise day to day which is where year 10's form 2 schools take over the museum, they are given £250 and they are set the challenge of making a profit. To start the day I instantly had a problem, because the costumes needed by Norton school had been lent out and not brought back so I had to improvise. I then helped them to set up and had to do a slight re-arangement of rooms when an area was no longer suitable for the story telling. When they were set up I had a wander round and sampled a few of the products that they were selling - all of which were very nice indeed. These included fruit smoothies, baking, scarecrows and portraits which I took with someone who was organising the activity. I also helped another Robin in the blacksmith's and got to have a go myself. This I found fascinating because it is something that I would like to learn for my design work at school. At the end I helped with the tidying away.