Blog post by Isabel Chandanam, Rory Daye, and Jemma Grange - year 10 students from Deerpark School
Isabel, Rory, and Jemma joined the Corinium Museum team for a week of work experience.
Our work experience here at the museum has offered us the opportunity to participate in a range of different activities- involving behind the scenes tasks and interaction with visitors and tourists. These tasks have given us an insight into work life and the challenges that staff need to overcome regularly.
We started off our experience doing collections tasks which enabled us to view and organise museum artefacts which we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to access. We found this interesting because it was quite a hands-on task. This collections task enabled us the chance to gain access to the archive room and learn the optimum conditions for artefacts to be safely stored. Our supervisor helped us categorise the relics using the museum’s accession codes. We continued this task for the rest of the day.
Our next assignment involved us interacting with the general public and visiting schools. We had the chance to demonstrate our prior knowledge of Roman Britain as well as furthering our understanding and gaining social experience. This task consisted of us displaying objects to the general public.
To conclude our second day at the museum, we assisted in checking, cataloguing and organising the museum’s photo archives. Specifically, we were examining photos from Cirencester. As locals, we found this task particularly engaging as we could compare our everyday experience of living in Cirencester to those of previous citizens and members of the community during the 20th century.
Working with chaotic primary school children was without a doubt the most entertaining part of the week. We particularly enjoyed getting stuck in with talkative children and helping them learn about Romans whilst having fun. All of the children loved pretending they were Celts or Romans as they dressed up in a variety of costumes representing typical fashion of the time. In particular, the togas proved incredibly popular!
To adhere to our common interest of art, we were given the time to appreciate the museum displays by drawing artefacts we were intrigued by. This enabled us to properly observe the fine details of historical relics. To check for improvements the museum could make, we were asked to assess the navigation and flow of the gallery.
Later on in the week, we were given another chance to communicate with the general public again. Many children were eager to experience what it is like to be an archaeologist. We helped them utilize the ‘dig-pits’ and answered any of their questions.
Our week so far has been educational and this opportunity has benefited us significantly and will support us in future career decisions we will have to make; we will value this experience.
