DURING part of the first week of July I had work experience at the Ross Gazette.

I live in Quedgeley, near Gloucester, and my school, Severnvale, wants their pupils to do a week of work experience. I wanted to do something that seemed interesting and different, and I am very interested in photography. Most of the pupils choose primary schools or working at their parents’ work place but I didn’t want that. I looked up online for newspapers and tried local ones but, unfortunately, I had to be 17 to do work experience for them. I posted a message on a Facebook page asking if any business could allow me to do work experience that included photography or photojournalism. I got many replies stating that they needed help with wedding photo shoots or some help at camera shops.

One of them though, was from the Ross Gazette. Seeing that I don’t live near Ross-on-Wye I didn’t know what this was but when I researched it, it was just the type of thing I was looking for. Sending an email to the editor I waited for a reply and I got one quickly. Now I had my placement sorted.

On Monday, July 4th, as I didn’t have work experience on Monday and Tuesday, as these are press days at the newspaper, I went with my Grandad and Dad to RAF Conningsby where we were given a VIP tour around the place by one of the employees and saw many planes being worked on.

We had a chat to many of the people who fly the planes and a man named Stu Smiley spent a few minutes talking to us about many things. Because my Grandad was an electrician and worked on planes during WW2, this brought back many memories that he had long forgotten and made my Dad and I smile.

My Grandad talked about lots of things like types of engines in certain planes and the types on planes he worked on, where he worked and who he worked with.

At the age of 95 and having cancer my Grandad is starting to lose his memories or having them jumbled up, so this trip was to help him and to give him a special moment to remember.

His most favourite things to do are stuff to do with planes, he always attends the RAF Fairford Air Show every year. By the end of this tour we had seen a few Spitfires and Hurricanes and even heard a few new stories. I even found out he flew a plane and landed it without knowing what to do! On the way home my Grandad had a smile on his face and couldn’t stop talking about his day. This is one of the moments I will always treasure, as it’s one where I saw my Grandad truly happy.

By the end of the week at the Ross Gazette I had learned lots of new things, like how to set up pages and what tense I need to write in. I enjoyed my experience there and hopefully the next time I do work experience I will do something like this again.

Charlotte Nock, 15