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Witan Archaeology Young historian project
August update 2005
Event No 1 : Workshop 24/8/05 at Whitwick Historical Society. Attendance: 4 students.	Workshop organizers: Steve Saunders – archaeology Maureen Partridge and Harry Millford - historians.
Before the event took place, we needed to make sure that certain criteria were met. This included relevant insurance, a risk assessment for the venue and walk, along with CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks for the organizers.
Insurance
These events need public liability insurance of some kind. The best way possible to make sure that everyone who attended was covered was to insure the events. The policy covers the project for 15 events with 1 million pounds cover with a maximum attendance per event of 250. The cost of the insurance was £165.
Risk Assessment
The venue, ‘The Old Station’ is a building already used by the public and has all the safety and insurance requirements needed to run an event. However, to run the workshop we had to ensure that the way in which we set up the equipment did not compromise health and safety in the building. Maureen and I then planned the walk, taking notice of possible hazards. We then gave a verbal assessment of possible hazards prior to taking the students out of the venue.
CRB
Adult volunteers on the workshop have had their CRB checks already, due to their last jobs. I think N.W.L.C.V.S experienced some administration problems which delayed my CRB check being confirmed. If it were not for Maureen and Harry already being CRB checked, the event on the 24th would have been cancelled. This may not be a future problem with established organizations, but it could be for historical societies as there is usually no need for them to be checked. I think once I have been checked, it would be best to work with one volunteer who has also has an up to date check at all the events.
Advertising our workshop
Poster and word of mouth advertised this event. Being the first event, I wanted to see who it would attract just by local advertising at the station, super markets and parish boards. It really needed a more saturated concentration of posters and flyers in the district along with advertisement in the local press. Hopefully the information out there will encourage students to inquire about future events. More thought must go into advertising events. Maybe a better way of recruiting students for events would be at talks held at youth organizations or groups. It’s interesting that we could have doubled the turn out for the first event if it was open to GCSE students. Ideally, a list of students who want to attend would be best. There maybe an issue with who holds this information and what it’s used for. There’s also the fact that the YHP is not a study program but more of a ‘one off hit’ for students, to encourage study of local history and the use of the local historical resource.
The Workshop
The day started with a talk about understanding periods in history and key dates. This was all generated by the students who with encouragement from the historians, where able to fill in more or less 4000 years of British history. After this there was a talk about the prehistoric period, based around the most famous Stone Age family, ‘The Flintstones.’ I was happy with both talks, as they are simple to create and use. If the main aim was to create a historical discussion then it worked. Again it helped having local historians there, as they could relate what we were talking about to the district. After dinner, we looked at maps and photos of Whitwick prior to the walk.
The walk started well. The students could not believe how much the landscape has changed. This is again something that I would repeat at every event. As it was, we got rained off and the event finished early. I will go into more detail about certain aspects of the day when I do a summary of the YHP.
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