Hello, I’m Samuel and I joined the Wessex Archaeology team three weeks ago as Community & Education Manager.
This is a newly created role in which I have two main streams of work; I will proactively curate a community engagement programme of formal and informal events, school presentations and resource loans, and reactively support and act as a consultant for our project managers to deliver community engagement in areas where we have projects running. I will also be the first point of contact and coordinator for work experience, student placements and our dedicated volunteer team; identifying new volunteer projects and expanding the team.
I’m excited to be returning to archaeology. After I left Bishop Otter teacher training college my first job was as Education Officer at Fishbourne Roman Palace. I have spent the intervening decade in a number of roles delivering community engagement projects and developing and delivering learning programmes most notably at Chichester District Museum where the programme was awarded the Sandford Award for excellence in Heritage Education.
I join Wessex Archaeology from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution where my team of 65 Education presenters delivered water safety messaging to over 40,000 children every year.
I’ve spent my first three weeks here familiarising myself with our community engagement offerings, establishing contact with our partners and getting stuck in to several extant education projects which has been great.
The Wessex family have given me a warm welcome and I’m eager to settle in and crack on.