Tales from the playground

Eloise Green, a Y10 student from King Edward VII school, recently undertook a fortnight’s work experience at Pitsmoor Adventure Playground.  Here she writes about her experience.

Most of my friends at school, when picking work experience, picked shops and offices but that didn’t appeal to me. I’ve always seen myself working with kids when I am older, so I knew that if I wanted to show I have the best experience for that type of  job then I’d have to pick the right work experience now. And it was the best decision I could have made.

Instead of working inside all day, I got to work outside doing different things every day in the playground. Granted, for the first couple of days the weather wasn’t perfect but that didn’t bother me at all. I’ve always been a fan of gloomy weather and it was fun to show that I am willing to work under any conditions. In the first week I was involved in making a willow den and the rainy weather actually helped a lot to keep the willow flexible and easy to use, so thank goodness it rained!

However, not much good can be said about the rainy weather at the start of the second week when we were trying to work on developing the roof garden. However, I always like a challenge, so the heavy rain didn’t put me off getting my job done. Luckily for the rest of the week whilst we were working on it the weather cleared up which meant we could paint without having to redo it, which was good.

As for working with the kids, it was fun and very engaging. They were involved in painting pots, digging, planting flowers and making the willow den. It really showed me that when kids get the chance to develop their play areas, they will. Kids really will do anything, whether it’s dirty or not; it doesn’t put them off, they find it fun. Observing the children at the playground really helped with my knowledge of kids and how they play. I found it fascinating to see how kids go into their own world when they are playing.