Work Experience in Public Achievement!

Friday 27 March 09

Monday:

On Monday we had a typical day in the office, we started at 9 and Ben and Martina introduced us to everyone.

Kamal taught us how he edits the videos for the WIMPS website and let us try for ourselves.

We wrote the questions for Minister Ruane, Junior Minister Kelly and Patricia Lewsley, the Children and young people’s commissioner.

Tuesday:

On Tuesday we went up to Stormont to a conference with Patricia Lewsley. She was talking about the launch of “NICCY’s Review of Children’s Rights in Northern Ireland.” After the conference we met Commissioner Lewsley and asked her about the review.

After the conference we were VERY hungry, so we decided to go to the canteen, where we met Mr Basil McCrea who bought us all a sandwich, except Meghan who felt sick after being put on the spot to interview one of NICCY’s youth Panel, Megan O’Kane.

We returned from Stormont and went back to the Public Achievement building where we spent the rest of the day coming up with ideas for WIMPS and writing the WIMPScast.

Wednesday:

On Wednesday we went to Stormont castle, where we got lost looking for a building that didn’t actually exist, luckily we left early, so we weren’t late.

When we eventually got there, we did an interview with Junior Minister Gerry Kelly, he was very welcoming and we had a great time talking with him.

After Gerry Kelly’s interview we were due to interview Jeffrey Donaldson, who is also Junior Minister, (and get this, he asked us!) but unfortunately he got held up within his constituency and couldn’t make it, but his interview has been rescheduled to the 23^rd of March, and will appear on the website soon!

After leaving Stormont we went for a quick lunch in the office and off we went to St. Gerard’s where we had first hand experience of what Public Achievement do in schools. We took part in the dirty socks game where we talked about issues that make us angry, sad or bored and thought up ways that they could improve the situations. It was good fun, even though one of the 15 year old boys got a bit distracted by Aoibheann!  

Wednesday night, is of course WIMPS night, so we organized WIMPS and blew up 61 balloons for a game we invented, that didn’t quite work as planned but we still had fun!  Also, we finished writing the WIMPScast which included several interesting facts which where a big hit with the wimps crew and hopefully with our viewers!

Thursday:

On Thursday we the biggest interview of the week Caitriona Ruin, I mean, Caitriona Ruane. Fellow WIMPS member Xenia came along to the office in the morning where we spent the morning preparing her questions and making sure we were ready to set her straight when she went off talking about Mayo and Bobby Sands.

The questions we asked her were about, the 11 plus, too many teachers being trained, and sex education. Because we were still very hungry Kamal also stole some scones for us.

Later in the afternoon we went along with Ben and some other Public Achievement staff for a meeting with Michael Arlow about an evaluation programme for WIMPS and a discussion about how we could set it up and how we could improve the website!

Friday:

Today we've a been preparing for a board meeting where we're going to be presenting WIMPS and what we do and then going to get some dinner with the staff for a goodbye,

And finally, we’re here, writing this article on the last day of our work experience.  It will be really sad to leave, we’ve really enjoyed it.

Thanks for the placement at Public Achievement! It’s been a good experience and maybe you’ll see us in a few years for a full time job.

Aoibheann and Meghan!