What is so interesting about this apprenticeship is the way we get put into different departments and discover the many diverse roles that make up the team in the Museum service. Recently I have been assigned to the Restoration Department which deals with anything that needs looking after maintenance or restoration wise in the different buildings.
This department always has an array of things to do every day from inspecting the voids in the Pavilion to supervising contractors cleaning the fireplaces or hot water tanks.
The voids are areas between the domes of the Pavilion and need to be inspected for wear and tear etc. I made an important archaeological discovery the other day. In one of the voids we were inspecting I found a Coca Cola can circa 1986! It was really old, even older than me. I had a look at the label which listed only 4 ingredients and I thought that Coke must have been healthier then. However it was suggested to me that labelling now had to list every ingredient. I am not sure it will make the exhibits in the Museum.
I have really enjoyed working with all the various contractors I have met during the time I have been here. They all come with new skills and generally are very entertaining, informative and friendly. Unanimously they all appreciate and respect the uniqueness of the Pavilion and remind me of what a National Treasure we look after.
I have also discovered the concept of minutes in meetings which all sounds pretty obvious when you know about the importance of them, but it just hadn’t occurred to me before. I have also been using a laser to check the heat omitting from the radiators in Museum. This involved finding all the heat sources using a plan of the ground floor and measuring each one before recording the information. I felt almost like a scientist.
I have been involved in a small way with the opening of a new exhibition about how the Pavilion was turned into a hospital for Indian Troops. I attended one of the final meetings and I found it fascinating how all the different jobs came together to create the final product.
Perhaps the finest moment in my time here came when I was given the job of toilet seat installation, something that I have never done but have heard my dad moan about. I don’t know why he was complaining because I found the whole experience extremely rewarding. I think I did a good job and if there is a need will be asked to do it again.
Anyway back to the coalface as they say!
Zak
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We have been so busy the past few weeks that it would be impossible to write about it all! We’ve done everything from being involved (from a distance) with a blocked urinal, to repairing the mosaic floor of the Museum. I’m really enjoying working in Facilities Management. It great having such varied days and not knowing what’s about to happen! Having a more hands-on role on the estate is great as we’re getting to see every inch of the buildings and being able to see physical things we’ve achieved, such as the mosaic, is very rewarding.
I have been working a lot on the sustainability project that we have been set. I spent a lot of last week with an electricity meter measuring the costs of running various appliances found around the buildings. There were some very interesting results and Zak, Louise and I are on the case to make the buildings run much more eco-efficiently. I can’t write about any of our findings at the moment, but everything will be revealed eventually!
Cassie
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Friday, 5 March 2010
Time for a catch up!
Firstly, I’d like to apologise for the lack of updates! Zak and I have been so busy over the past few months, it’s been hard finding a chance to update properly! We’re going to do our very best to restart our regular updating again. Starting from now!
On Monday 7th of December, Zak and I started working in the Retail and Catering department. We began our first morning with till training. Luckily, we’ve both worked in retail before, so got to grips with the system quite quickly. In our first week we learnt how to correctly store, price, replenish and display stock, as well as merchandising and keeping the shops clean. As part of this, we spent time at the Booth Museum, Hove Museum and the Booklovers Store in the Jubilee Library.
As I have worked in a Deli for the past two years, the majority of my time with the department was spent in the Pavilion shop, with Zak spending a lot of time in the Pavilion and Hove Museum Tearooms, as there was space for them to have only one of us at a time. It was great spending Christmas in a lovely and warm shop, selling Christmas presents to customers who had stories to tell (one lady was telling me about the 10-week Mediterranean cruise she and her husband were embarking on the next day. It made me very jealous!).
I only spent a few days in the tearoom at the Pavilion. I had a good time though. Everyone that works up there is so nice that it’s great just being around them. As I was there for such a short amount of time, I didn’t really pick up many new kitchen skills, but I spent time serving customers, making tea and coffee and washing up as well as spending a whole day doing stock-take. The way customers are treated and spoken to is very different to the way it is in the rest of the building. A great deal of care and time is spent talking to them about their visit and about their food to make sure everything’s right and that they’re having a good time.
On the morning of Monday the 18th of January, Zak and I began our Equalities Awareness training that concluded the following week. It was a very interesting course as it’s not really a subject that gets discussed very often and I learnt a lot. The course involved a lot of worksheets and handouts, which made the group think about and discuss language and actions appropriate to working for the Council as well as our own opinions, prejudices and attitudes towards minority groups.
On the afternoon of the 18th, I started working with the Functions team; Trish and Sarah. This week has been my favourite week so far as Event Management is one of my big interests. My main project for the week was coordinating a mailout to a number of businesses who had booked stalls at the Royal Pavilion Wedding Fair, which happened on the 7th of February. For this, I wrote a generic letter, then personalised it and addressed it to each of the businesses. I then made sure each business received an appropriate number of free entry vouchers, flyers and posters to help promote the event. During the week I also went on a number of site visits, in which prospective clients came to view the rooms in the Pavilion that are used for weddings/corporate events as well as attending an actual wedding on the Friday of the week! It was really strange sitting in on a stranger’s wedding, but it was lovely to see the building being used in a completely different way and it was a really nice event. I also attended a sponsorship launch in the Courtroom for a string of events happening as part of the Fringe Festival in May. The events sound really good and I hope I’m going to be able to get involved in the actual thing as everything that I saw looked amazing
After the second half of Equalities Awareness training, we began our three-week stint in the Bookings Office. Zak and I began by having a meeting with Joceline (who is acting Bookings Manager) to create a timetable for our time with her. It was great to have such a precise structure to our work and it was nice to be able to plan our time ourselves. We began the week by learning how to use the scary phones and the even scarier booking programme! Both have lots of buttons and codes and take quite a bit of getting used to. During our time in the office, we both attended Pavilion tours and Museum learning sessions to get a better idea of the events we were booking as well as doing work on the Pavilion phone system and website.
After our time in the bookings office, Zak moved onto Functions, while I went back to the shop for a week. The reason for this was to fill the gap while Zak was elsewhere, but also so that Marcus could come in and carry out the first of my observations, which are a big part of the assessment for our National Award. Unfortunately, the shop was really quiet during the time Marcus was around, which wasn’t ideal, hopefully it will be better next time!
We are now at the end of our second week with the Facilities Management team. I’m having a great time, even though it’s knackering! Over the past fortnight, we’ve found ourselves on the roofs and in the basements of the Pavilion, Brighton Museum, The Dome and Preston Manor, learning how to move the seats in the Courtroom and starting work on a big project to do with electricity usage, cost and sustainability that Louise has set us. We’ve also been on a tour of the Materials Recovery Facility in Hollingdean, attempted to use an electronic (sadly not sonic) screwdriver, spent a couple of days at the Booth Museum (which Zak has written about) and lots and lots of other things. Part of the Facilities Management job is dealing with problems and reacting to situations, so our stint in the department doesn’t have a set plan, which makes a nice contrast to the structure of our time in the Bookings Office. We will be with Louise and Robin until mid-April, so I’m sure we’ll be writing lots more about it!
This is probably a good time to say that Zak, John and myself were featured on Meridian East news (which meant it wasn’t shown in the Brighton & Hove area) a few weeks ago to tie in with the launch of the Council’s Apprenticeship strategy. I’m still waiting on a final answer as to whether the feature can be uploaded onto the internet for us to post here, but in the meantime, if you’re desperate to see it, the three of us all have a copy on DVD which I’m sure we can lend out.
Cassie
On Monday 7th of December, Zak and I started working in the Retail and Catering department. We began our first morning with till training. Luckily, we’ve both worked in retail before, so got to grips with the system quite quickly. In our first week we learnt how to correctly store, price, replenish and display stock, as well as merchandising and keeping the shops clean. As part of this, we spent time at the Booth Museum, Hove Museum and the Booklovers Store in the Jubilee Library.
As I have worked in a Deli for the past two years, the majority of my time with the department was spent in the Pavilion shop, with Zak spending a lot of time in the Pavilion and Hove Museum Tearooms, as there was space for them to have only one of us at a time. It was great spending Christmas in a lovely and warm shop, selling Christmas presents to customers who had stories to tell (one lady was telling me about the 10-week Mediterranean cruise she and her husband were embarking on the next day. It made me very jealous!).
I only spent a few days in the tearoom at the Pavilion. I had a good time though. Everyone that works up there is so nice that it’s great just being around them. As I was there for such a short amount of time, I didn’t really pick up many new kitchen skills, but I spent time serving customers, making tea and coffee and washing up as well as spending a whole day doing stock-take. The way customers are treated and spoken to is very different to the way it is in the rest of the building. A great deal of care and time is spent talking to them about their visit and about their food to make sure everything’s right and that they’re having a good time.
On the morning of Monday the 18th of January, Zak and I began our Equalities Awareness training that concluded the following week. It was a very interesting course as it’s not really a subject that gets discussed very often and I learnt a lot. The course involved a lot of worksheets and handouts, which made the group think about and discuss language and actions appropriate to working for the Council as well as our own opinions, prejudices and attitudes towards minority groups.
On the afternoon of the 18th, I started working with the Functions team; Trish and Sarah. This week has been my favourite week so far as Event Management is one of my big interests. My main project for the week was coordinating a mailout to a number of businesses who had booked stalls at the Royal Pavilion Wedding Fair, which happened on the 7th of February. For this, I wrote a generic letter, then personalised it and addressed it to each of the businesses. I then made sure each business received an appropriate number of free entry vouchers, flyers and posters to help promote the event. During the week I also went on a number of site visits, in which prospective clients came to view the rooms in the Pavilion that are used for weddings/corporate events as well as attending an actual wedding on the Friday of the week! It was really strange sitting in on a stranger’s wedding, but it was lovely to see the building being used in a completely different way and it was a really nice event. I also attended a sponsorship launch in the Courtroom for a string of events happening as part of the Fringe Festival in May. The events sound really good and I hope I’m going to be able to get involved in the actual thing as everything that I saw looked amazing
After the second half of Equalities Awareness training, we began our three-week stint in the Bookings Office. Zak and I began by having a meeting with Joceline (who is acting Bookings Manager) to create a timetable for our time with her. It was great to have such a precise structure to our work and it was nice to be able to plan our time ourselves. We began the week by learning how to use the scary phones and the even scarier booking programme! Both have lots of buttons and codes and take quite a bit of getting used to. During our time in the office, we both attended Pavilion tours and Museum learning sessions to get a better idea of the events we were booking as well as doing work on the Pavilion phone system and website.
After our time in the bookings office, Zak moved onto Functions, while I went back to the shop for a week. The reason for this was to fill the gap while Zak was elsewhere, but also so that Marcus could come in and carry out the first of my observations, which are a big part of the assessment for our National Award. Unfortunately, the shop was really quiet during the time Marcus was around, which wasn’t ideal, hopefully it will be better next time!
We are now at the end of our second week with the Facilities Management team. I’m having a great time, even though it’s knackering! Over the past fortnight, we’ve found ourselves on the roofs and in the basements of the Pavilion, Brighton Museum, The Dome and Preston Manor, learning how to move the seats in the Courtroom and starting work on a big project to do with electricity usage, cost and sustainability that Louise has set us. We’ve also been on a tour of the Materials Recovery Facility in Hollingdean, attempted to use an electronic (sadly not sonic) screwdriver, spent a couple of days at the Booth Museum (which Zak has written about) and lots and lots of other things. Part of the Facilities Management job is dealing with problems and reacting to situations, so our stint in the department doesn’t have a set plan, which makes a nice contrast to the structure of our time in the Bookings Office. We will be with Louise and Robin until mid-April, so I’m sure we’ll be writing lots more about it!
This is probably a good time to say that Zak, John and myself were featured on Meridian East news (which meant it wasn’t shown in the Brighton & Hove area) a few weeks ago to tie in with the launch of the Council’s Apprenticeship strategy. I’m still waiting on a final answer as to whether the feature can be uploaded onto the internet for us to post here, but in the meantime, if you’re desperate to see it, the three of us all have a copy on DVD which I’m sure we can lend out.
Cassie
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Hello Readers
My days at the museums are anything but normal and as usual full of variety and special experiences. I’ve spent a week in the functions office helping where I can and meeting the happy couples planning on having their marriage at the Royal Pavilion. Sometimes it’s just the soon to be in-laws visiting on behalf of the couple without them knowing.
I also started work in Facilities Management with Louise and Robin.
But I’ll talk more about Facilities another time; right now let me tell you of some weird and wonderful things that I’ve discovered up in the Booth Museum.
Myself and Cassie were asked to help the clearing of books and shelves in the Booth because of the new disabled access that’s going to be put in.
When we started to clear one shelf at a time it didn’t take long to start finding the hidden history of the Booth, we found VHS tapes of the Booth from the past and also found pictures of some of the staff in their youth at the Booth including our mentor John! (He hasn’t changed a bit!)
I later came across something hidden in the book shelf, what looked like to me a red snake skin in a long plastic bag. On further investigation I discovered that it was an original part of Mr Booth’s chair, the arm to be precise. It really came to life to me when I saw the picture that the Booth Museum has of Mr Booth himself sitting in it.
Here is a list of some of the other items found in the Booth:
Montgomery, the name given to the Rattlesnake head sealed in a plastic orb
A book titled “My thoughts on a pebble”
An endless supply of animal books dating back into the 18th Century.
DUST LIKE YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE!
The list goes on.
It’s funny how you build a tolerance to dead animals after spending time at the Booth.
For instance when sitting down having my lunch the phone rang and was answered by one of the taxidermists, he advised the caller step by step in great detail on how best they should remove the skull and boil it in water and let it simmer for a day. He went on to explain that after this process it is much easier to remove the brain and cartilage so your left with nothing but the skull of the rabbit. (I may have got the details wrong but I did feel a bit sick!)
Needless to say if I had not already been at the Booth a few times there’s no way my meal would have been finished!
Zak
Hello Readers
My days at the museums are anything but normal and as usual full of variety and special experiences. I’ve spent a week in the functions office helping where I can and meeting the happy couples planning on having their marriage at the Royal Pavilion. Sometimes it’s just the soon to be in-laws visiting on behalf of the couple without them knowing.
I also started work in Facilities Management with Louise and Robin.
But I’ll talk more about Facilities another time; right now let me tell you of some weird and wonderful things that I’ve discovered up in the Booth Museum.
Myself and Cassie were asked to help the clearing of books and shelves in the Booth because of the new disabled access that’s going to be put in.
When we started to clear one shelf at a time it didn’t take long to start finding the hidden history of the Booth, we found VHS tapes of the Booth from the past and also found pictures of some of the staff in their youth at the Booth including our mentor John! (He hasn’t changed a bit!)
I later came across something hidden in the book shelf, what looked like to me a red snake skin in a long plastic bag. On further investigation I discovered that it was an original part of Mr Booth’s chair, the arm to be precise. It really came to life to me when I saw the picture that the Booth Museum has of Mr Booth himself sitting in it.
Here is a list of some of the other items found in the Booth:
Montgomery, the name given to the Rattlesnake head sealed in a plastic orb
A book titled “My thoughts on a pebble”
An endless supply of animal books dating back into the 18th Century.
DUST LIKE YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE!
The list goes on.
It’s funny how you build a tolerance to dead animals after spending time at the Booth.
For instance when sitting down having my lunch the phone rang and was answered by one of the taxidermists, he advised the caller step by step in great detail on how best they should remove the skull and boil it in water and let it simmer for a day. He went on to explain that after this process it is much easier to remove the brain and cartilage so your left with nothing but the skull of the rabbit. (I may have got the details wrong but I did feel a bit sick!)
Needless to say if I had not already been at the Booth a few times there’s no way my meal would have been finished!
Zak
Sunday, 31 January 2010
Happy New Year!
The new decade has got off to a very busy start as I have spent most of it in catering so far.
Here’s a statistic for you, apparently 97% of people that visit the Royal Pavilion Tea Room are new visitors. This is in sharp contrast to the Hove Museum Tea Room that is a regular meeting place for friends and families alike.
I have been surprised at the things that I have learned in catering. Besides the obvious hygiene best practice, basic food preparation, cleaning and serving the public, my preconceptions of the coffee/ Café culture in Brighton & Hove has been turned on its head with the realization that Tea is the most ordered beverage in both ‘Tea’ Rooms (obvious really, the clue’s in the name). English Breakfast is the most popular blend with Earl Grey well behind in second. However just as I felt I was getting a grip on tea varieties I realized that I still had a lot to learn when I was asked for Red Bush! As ever my colleagues were extremely helpful in educating me when they saw my blushes! You learn something every day.
Despite all the grim weather we’ve endured so far this year, the happiest moment was the free opening day at the Royal Pavilion. It was wonderful to see the looks on people’s faces when they saw the unique décor that has been so beautifully and sympathtically restored and maintained. It reminded me of the amazing team whose talent, experience, energy and sheer hard work ensure the survival of this unique building for generations to come.
Next it’s on to Bookings and another learning curve.
Zak
The new decade has got off to a very busy start as I have spent most of it in catering so far.
Here’s a statistic for you, apparently 97% of people that visit the Royal Pavilion Tea Room are new visitors. This is in sharp contrast to the Hove Museum Tea Room that is a regular meeting place for friends and families alike.
I have been surprised at the things that I have learned in catering. Besides the obvious hygiene best practice, basic food preparation, cleaning and serving the public, my preconceptions of the coffee/ Café culture in Brighton & Hove has been turned on its head with the realization that Tea is the most ordered beverage in both ‘Tea’ Rooms (obvious really, the clue’s in the name). English Breakfast is the most popular blend with Earl Grey well behind in second. However just as I felt I was getting a grip on tea varieties I realized that I still had a lot to learn when I was asked for Red Bush! As ever my colleagues were extremely helpful in educating me when they saw my blushes! You learn something every day.
Despite all the grim weather we’ve endured so far this year, the happiest moment was the free opening day at the Royal Pavilion. It was wonderful to see the looks on people’s faces when they saw the unique décor that has been so beautifully and sympathtically restored and maintained. It reminded me of the amazing team whose talent, experience, energy and sheer hard work ensure the survival of this unique building for generations to come.
Next it’s on to Bookings and another learning curve.
Zak
Thursday, 10 December 2009
Week Five
Last week was our last week with the ISO teams. We spent Monday and Tuesday at the Pavilion and Museum, patrolling and in the control room, as well as going on a staircase hunt with Nick and Graham (we found it in the end, but it wasn’t as exciting as we’d all hoped).
On Wednesday we spent the day at Hove museum. When we arrived we were given glass cleaner and cloths and instructed to clean the cabinets! The ISO’s who work at Hove Museum, Preston Manor and the Booth Museum have a much more active job which involves looking after the building a lot more than the ISO’s at the Pavilion and Brighton Museum. After the cleaning, we got a chance to have a proper look around the museum displays before having a tour of the storage spaces and roof.
After having a very good jacket potato from the Tearoom for lunch, we spent the afternoon on the front desk, helping out with visitor queries and selling products in the shop.
Thursday was spent at Preston Manor, where we were greeted with the task of vacuuming the big centre staircase! At 10 o’clock, John arrived with Marcus and Jean from City College. We went through a LOT of paperwork and questions (we get NUS cards! Hurrah!), before we arranged to have our first proper meeting with Marcus, who will be our assessor for the duration of our apprenticeship, on Friday afternoon. It sounds like a very fun and interesting course!
During the afternoon, we were allowed to observe the school Role-Play activities. We followed the actors Greg and Pam (playing James the footman and Mrs Story the head housekeeper) around the building with the children who were visiting to learn about Victorian life and were pretending to be interviewed for servant positions. Greg was being very silly which, for me, meant I was forced to become a mute (which one of the boys from the school thought meant “short”. I wasn’t very pleased!) and Zak became Tomkins, which the children thought was a funny name!
We spent the rest of the afternoon tidying and locking up the building which involved going into the cellars which was interesting, but a bit too damp and spider-y for me to really enjoy!
We were at the Booth Museum on Friday. When we arrived, the ISO’s on duty made us very welcome and showed us how the shop worked. After this, we helped set up some tables and materials for a children’s art workshop that was happening in the morning. I thought that it was a really nice idea as the workshop was held in the insect part of the museum and many of the children left with models of spiders with glittery bodies and pipe cleaner legs, which showed that they were absorbing and being influenced by their surroundings, even if they were sparkled up a bit!! The afternoon was rather quiet so we spent quite a while helping Gerald move cases (which I didn’t look inside) upstairs to the storage area whilst asking him questions about everything we could think of and generally learning more about the museum and it’s contents.
I have really enjoyed being an ISO, but I am looking forward to doing something with a more active role. I am very pleased with the amount I’ve learnt in a month and how much of it I am able to remember!
Cassie
On Wednesday we spent the day at Hove museum. When we arrived we were given glass cleaner and cloths and instructed to clean the cabinets! The ISO’s who work at Hove Museum, Preston Manor and the Booth Museum have a much more active job which involves looking after the building a lot more than the ISO’s at the Pavilion and Brighton Museum. After the cleaning, we got a chance to have a proper look around the museum displays before having a tour of the storage spaces and roof.
After having a very good jacket potato from the Tearoom for lunch, we spent the afternoon on the front desk, helping out with visitor queries and selling products in the shop.
Thursday was spent at Preston Manor, where we were greeted with the task of vacuuming the big centre staircase! At 10 o’clock, John arrived with Marcus and Jean from City College. We went through a LOT of paperwork and questions (we get NUS cards! Hurrah!), before we arranged to have our first proper meeting with Marcus, who will be our assessor for the duration of our apprenticeship, on Friday afternoon. It sounds like a very fun and interesting course!
During the afternoon, we were allowed to observe the school Role-Play activities. We followed the actors Greg and Pam (playing James the footman and Mrs Story the head housekeeper) around the building with the children who were visiting to learn about Victorian life and were pretending to be interviewed for servant positions. Greg was being very silly which, for me, meant I was forced to become a mute (which one of the boys from the school thought meant “short”. I wasn’t very pleased!) and Zak became Tomkins, which the children thought was a funny name!
We spent the rest of the afternoon tidying and locking up the building which involved going into the cellars which was interesting, but a bit too damp and spider-y for me to really enjoy!
We were at the Booth Museum on Friday. When we arrived, the ISO’s on duty made us very welcome and showed us how the shop worked. After this, we helped set up some tables and materials for a children’s art workshop that was happening in the morning. I thought that it was a really nice idea as the workshop was held in the insect part of the museum and many of the children left with models of spiders with glittery bodies and pipe cleaner legs, which showed that they were absorbing and being influenced by their surroundings, even if they were sparkled up a bit!! The afternoon was rather quiet so we spent quite a while helping Gerald move cases (which I didn’t look inside) upstairs to the storage area whilst asking him questions about everything we could think of and generally learning more about the museum and it’s contents.
I have really enjoyed being an ISO, but I am looking forward to doing something with a more active role. I am very pleased with the amount I’ve learnt in a month and how much of it I am able to remember!
Cassie
Monday, 30 November 2009
Weeks Three and Four
This past fortnight we’ve been out on our own! Patrolling individually or together, we are quickly learning how to be an ISO. We’ve spent an even time between the Pavilion and the Museum, finding out the most common questions from the public and quirky facts about the buildings and their history from the ISO’s who have worked here for a few years.
The main aim of being an Information and Security Officer is to give the customers a pleasant and safe experience of the venue they are visiting. This is mainly achieved by greeting the customers and providing information when asked, but often staff will go out of their way to answer questions – one ISO was so keen to find out what Dropsy was for a visitor, she found a member of staff who could Google it (it’s called Oedema now, an accumulation of fluid under the skin. It was one of George IV’s numerous impairments)!
Many of the ISO’s have worked here for several years and are currently gaining qualifications, in areas such as Customer Service and Sign Language, to enhance the customer’s experience.
I have spent a number of hours over the past two weeks in the Control Room which I’ve found really interesting as I’ve learnt a lot about Health and Safety and data protection amongst other very important things. We spent a couple of hours learning how the ISO roster is made, which is more complicated than you’d think!
One of our afternoons was spent running around the outside of the Pavilion with Graham which, even though it was cold and muddy, provided us with a really good overview of how the building is secured from the outside.
This week, we spent Tuesday evening on a lock up of the Pavilion with Terry. We now know the building inside out! It’s a very different place in the dark; everything seems bigger and a lot noisier! As well as taking us to all the underground storage areas, tunnels and having an opportunity to lie on the carpet of the Music Room and see the ceiling properly, we were taken up on the roof of the Pavilion which was amazing. You could see everything and all the tourists taking photos and people waiting at the bus stop could see you!
(Photo from www.royalpavilion.org.uk/palace/the_palace.asp)
Sadly another ISO on the late shift decided it would be a good idea to rattle doors and hide behind curtains. Although this is funny now, at the time it was horrible! I wasn’t the only one scared by it though…
This week is our last week of ISO-ing. We’ll spend Monday and Tuesday in the Pavilion and Brighton Museum before spending Wednesday at Hove Museum, Thursday at Preston Manor (where we’ll also meet our Apprenticeship Assessor and City College Skills Advisor for the first time) and Friday at the Booth Museum. It’s going to be really good to spend some time in the different locations and hopefully learn some more facts!
Cassie
The main aim of being an Information and Security Officer is to give the customers a pleasant and safe experience of the venue they are visiting. This is mainly achieved by greeting the customers and providing information when asked, but often staff will go out of their way to answer questions – one ISO was so keen to find out what Dropsy was for a visitor, she found a member of staff who could Google it (it’s called Oedema now, an accumulation of fluid under the skin. It was one of George IV’s numerous impairments)!
Many of the ISO’s have worked here for several years and are currently gaining qualifications, in areas such as Customer Service and Sign Language, to enhance the customer’s experience.
I have spent a number of hours over the past two weeks in the Control Room which I’ve found really interesting as I’ve learnt a lot about Health and Safety and data protection amongst other very important things. We spent a couple of hours learning how the ISO roster is made, which is more complicated than you’d think!
One of our afternoons was spent running around the outside of the Pavilion with Graham which, even though it was cold and muddy, provided us with a really good overview of how the building is secured from the outside.
This week, we spent Tuesday evening on a lock up of the Pavilion with Terry. We now know the building inside out! It’s a very different place in the dark; everything seems bigger and a lot noisier! As well as taking us to all the underground storage areas, tunnels and having an opportunity to lie on the carpet of the Music Room and see the ceiling properly, we were taken up on the roof of the Pavilion which was amazing. You could see everything and all the tourists taking photos and people waiting at the bus stop could see you!
(Photo from www.royalpavilion.org.uk/palace/the_palace.asp)Sadly another ISO on the late shift decided it would be a good idea to rattle doors and hide behind curtains. Although this is funny now, at the time it was horrible! I wasn’t the only one scared by it though…
This week is our last week of ISO-ing. We’ll spend Monday and Tuesday in the Pavilion and Brighton Museum before spending Wednesday at Hove Museum, Thursday at Preston Manor (where we’ll also meet our Apprenticeship Assessor and City College Skills Advisor for the first time) and Friday at the Booth Museum. It’s going to be really good to spend some time in the different locations and hopefully learn some more facts!
Cassie
Tuesday, 17 November 2009
Weeks One and Two
I must start off with saying that I have had a fantastic first week, I’ve been spending my days visiting the various venues and museums scatted around
The places I have visited this week, Blatchington Mill, Brighton Pavilion, Brighton Museum, Foredown Tower, Preston Manor, and last but not least The Booth Museum.
I didn’t realise that there were so many different parts to
Blatchington Mill is an old flour windmill that is no longer working but still has most of the original parts. I had no idea that it was open to public but is a really interesting place to visit in the summer.
Preston Manor is a manor house decorated in the Edwardian style. As soon as you walk through the door you are transported into another age. Preston Manor is used by many schools as a way of experiencing life as it used to be. One child visitor apparently didn’t believe that they did not have electricity in the old days.
The
Last but not least in my view is the jewel in the crown The Royal Pavilion. Every time I go there I learn something new and as a cultural apprentice get to see parts that the public don’t see. The servant’s quarters are virtually as they were and there is original wallpaper and gives you a small flavour of life above the Pavilion. Underneath the Pavilion there is a big basement where I was shown the original furnace that used to heat the floor of the Pavilion a very early form of under floor heating.
All in all I have seen some amazing things that have given me a new perspective on the buildings and history of
Roll on next week!
Zac
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We spent out first week looking around all of the council’s main venues – the Royal Pavilion, Brighton Museum, Hove Museum, The Booth Museum, Preston Manor, West Blatchington Windmill and Foredown Tower and meeting all the staff we could find. After being issued with our keys, door passes, ID and name badge, we were ready to be handed over to the ISO (Information and Security Officers) team where we are to spend the first month of our apprenticeship.
We were shown the fire procedures for the Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museum, all the different patrols and how to get from one end of the Pavilion to the other by Mark, one of the three duty managers. We were then handed over to Vanda and Terry to learn about being an ISO and about the history of the building. We’ve spent much of the second week shadowing various members of the ISO team, learning a lot about the two venues and trying to find the duck in the Music Room of the Pavilion! We’re on our own from next week!
We’ll be spending the next two weeks in the Pavilion and Brighton Museum, before moving between Hove Museum, the Booth Museum and Preston Manor in our forth week.
Cassie
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