Project Details and Outcomes:
Young people, who already have an interest in archaeology, are brought together from a variety of different schools and sixth form colleges in Worcestershire, to undertake an exciting and unique fieldwork recording project for their Work Experience week. The projects are based on previously unrecorded earthwork sites and include training in practical archaeological surveying techniques, recording skills and report writing. The students spend three days in the field recording and producing the site plan, one day on researching the history of the site, using both documentary and cartographic sources, and one day report writing and producing a display. The report is entered onto the HER and the display with text and photographs is on view at Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service’s Day School and other outreach events.
As well as learning archaeological techniques, the young people improve their social skills. They come from several schools so they must learn quickly how to work as a team. They operate in pairs or small groups and then the whole team has to work together to finalise the plan, undertake the historic research and write the report. They make their own decisions on how to divide up the various tasks. They must select and allocate those who are best suited to each task, in order to get the job done and must produce the final archaeological report, the earthwork plan and the display by the end of the week.
The young people get a great sense of satisfaction from this type of project. As well as learning new skills, they take ownership of the site and get very excited by the prospect of discovering its historic secrets. They take pride in the results – the report and the display – and they get to take a copy of the report home to show family, friends and their teachers. They learn valuable lessons on how to work in a team with new people and how to take responsibility for their actions out in the field and during the research and report writing stages. They also learn how important it is to record sites for the Historic Environment Record.