My name is Asya Kortas and I’ve just completed my work experience at the Charterhouse. My head of year suggested that I come here and I’m so glad she did! I didn’t know that the Charterhouse even existed and now I have many memories within this “hidden gem”.
On Monday, my first day, I was quite nervous as I have never done work experience, or anything similar, before. I thought I would get lost instantly but Holly, the Volunteer Coordinator, gave me a tour with plenty of interesting facts, which really helped. Later that day I had lunch with the Brothers; it was honestly one of my favourite parts of the week. They all had fascinating stories to tell and were very humorous.
On Tuesday, I was given some computing tasks to do in the office – and even though I thought it would be really boring, it wasn’t that bad. After completing these, I joined Cynthia, the Learning Manager, who was teaching a primary school about Crime and Punishment in the Tudor era. After lunch Brother Mansel then allowed me to join his tour around the whole building as part of the afternoon’s Brother’s tour.
Wednesday was my first bit of free time where I could decide what to do – so I began taking pictures for this blog and the Charterhouse Twitter page. In the afternoon I was at the Museum Reception learning about the Visitor Host role and what they do – which is both helping the public and also working on admin behind the desk. Last week the Charterhouse hosted the BBC’s Gardener’s Question Time, and as a result the front desk was very busy with many people wanting to book a Garden tour and see the beautiful sights for themselves.
Yesterday I spent time finishing off the Twitter posts, and I am quite proud of how they turned out. The team at the Charterhouse will post these in the lead into my blog. Before my lunch break, I spent time with the Visitor Hosts again, and helped by handing out feedback forms to Museum visitors and a group who had been on a tour. They use these to help understand what visitors think, and how they can improve. In the afternoon I met with Charlotte, the Communications Manager, to learn about how marketing and social media is used to attract more visitors. She then set me a task to research contact details for local WI groups as they can then use this to reach out to the groups and encourage them to visit, as they are a key target audience.
Today is my last day at the Charterhouse and I would like to thank everyone who made me feel welcome and supported me – whether that was with work or with answering simple questions I had. It was an astounding experience; I will definitely visit again.
Asya Kortas, Year 10 Student, Bridge Academy Hackney