This week has been a first for the FW office, as we were joined by Joseph, who was with us for the week completing his Year 10 work experience. It was an absolute pleasure to host him, and we were all incredibly impressed by his maturity and eagerness to learn (as well as his biscuit eating ability!). Joe has written the article below all about his experience:

I have been doing work experience at Frost Wiltshire this week as my mum (Mel Hackney) works here. Throughout the course of the week, I have done a range of tasks such as: filing, rearranging features of posts for social media, using Xero Practice Manager to add recurring and one-off jobs, and many other things. I also visited two clients.

Both clients were very interesting and gave me lots of helpful information, and I appreciated them giving up their time to talk to me. They helped give me an idea of what subjects I may want to pick for A-levels by giving suggestions using the subjects that I enjoy the most now. They also highlighted the importance of AI. Even though I have heard of and previously used AI, I now realize how powerful it is as a tool and how it is something I could use more frequently and effectively. My mum took me to see these clients as she thought I would find them interesting, which I did.

Going back to the jobs I did in the office, even though some of them were more repetitive, many were enjoyable, such as: rearranging the designs for posts for social media, writing an article for the website and even some photography of the site. However, all the jobs were useful as they gave me an idea of what to expect when I get a real job, so I am grateful for all of them. I am also thankful to Frost Wiltshire itself for letting me work here for work experience (mainly Steve), and to Vicki and Mel (my mum) for setting enjoyable jobs and helping me do them if I needed it.

The site itself was very nice and homely, as it is in the countryside and has a garden which I sat in every day to have lunch or to take a break for fresh air. Upstairs, I had my own desk and computer with plenty of space and downstairs there is a fridge, so I could put my sandwich in to keep it fresh, and cookies which I was always kindly offered as well as a can of coke. Around the whole office there are plants which add to the atmosphere of nature. Colours from the logo: orange, lime and green – are also commonly used in decoration which really shows the effort that has been put into designing the office, like everything was picked with intention, and this made everything look right.

Throughout this week it felt quite tiring as on a normal school day, I wake up at 7:30 and the day ends at 3:25. After waiting for the bus and having a 30-minute ride, I get home at around 4:15. However, during my time at work experience I woke up at 7:30, but the day ended over 2 hours later, at 5:30. Furthermore, I then had an hour drive home until 6:30. Even though this was unappealing, reflecting on it now, I realize that it was just realistic – as the whole point of work experience is to give you a realistic experience of work. Also, I was also allowed to have breaks and go outside, which limited my tiredness and made the experience more enjoyable.

To conclude, I have greatly appreciated my time doing work experience at Frost Wiltshire and am thankful to everyone here: Steve, Vicki and Mel. I have had an enjoyable week, while also having a taste of what to expect when I get a job in the future. Even though it is a step up from what I am used to, and had lots of driving, it was still a great experience, and a brilliant way to end my second term of year 10 and start the Easter holidays.