Jimena:
I’m Jimena, a student from Year 10 at Nower Hill High School where l study classics, Latin and ancient history. For that reason, Headstone Museum sounded like a great opportunity for my work experience placement. The curating and archiving side was best suited for me as I learnt how to handle objects. For my public object handling, I chose to research two Ancient Greek theatre masks as this is a culture and time period that I am very interested in. As well as research and handling, talking to people about the masks and sharing stories related to them was both interesting and fun as I learnt to talk to different audiences through both marketing and the public object handling. I learnt a great deal about how the museum works through these varied tasks.
Mala:
Hi I’m Mala and I’m from Nower Hill High School in Year 10 where I study Latin, which is why I chose to work at the Headstone Manor museum. I enjoyed doing my work experience here and I loved the 4 days they had put together. Each day was well thought out and there were many different things they had planned for us. I liked to see what was happening behind the scenes and it was interesting to see the archives and curating. On the last day of the work experience I participated in object handling, where I showed two objects that I picked, I chose an oil lamp and a wax tablet. It was fun to talk to the different people and tell them about the research that I had done over the previous days.
Alana:
Hi, I’m Alana, a student in Year 12 at Queensmead sixth form. I’m studying Classical Civilisation as one of my A-levels, which is why I was intrigued by this opportunity to do work experience in a museum. I really enjoyed the 4 day work experience, as I found it very informative and interesting, and I learnt a lot about the inner workings of the Headstone Manor museum. We learnt about a broad range of departments in the museum including marketing, event planning, curating, and managing the archives and collections. It has been fun talking to members of the public and helping in the daily activities of the museum, for example participating in an object handling session with the public, in which I researched and presented an ancient Egyptian statue to visitors. As I am in sixth form, I will be making decisions about university and career choices soon, and doing work experience at Headstone Manor has been immensely helpful in my decision as I have learnt much about what it would be like to work in a museum environment, something I am considering as a career. The past 4 days have been very helpful and enjoyable and Headstone Manor is definitely a wonderful place to do work experience.
