You should already have a personal statement (or strong draft lines) in your Strand 2.2 folder. Today you are applying it to one door: the organisation you want to approach for work experience.

If you do not have a full statement yet, use your strongest four to six lines from prior portfolio work. If you do not yet have a named organisation, pick a real local option you could actually contact (library, club, shop, clinic or community centre) and name it before Part 2.

Quoting three nice lines from your full statement is not the job. The job is a short placement paragraph that organisation would actually open, plus a clear note on what you cut and why. Next lesson that paragraph goes straight into your first-contact email, so if it is vague, the email will show it straight away.

Three terms you will use for the rest of this strand when you approach a real workplace.

Part 1 — annotate the sample (about 10 minutes). Ciara wrote a solid general personal statement. The sample brief is for Harbour View After-School Club: a three-day placement supporting children aged 5–12 with homework, reading and free play. Tag her statement against that brief: what the advert makes relevant, what to cut even though it is strong elsewhere, and what fails to prove fit. When the class is ready, reveal the model tags and notice where you differed.

Model placement paragraph (Harbour View). After the tags, use this shape before you write your own:

I am a sixth-year student applying for the three-day placement at Harbour View After-School Club. For fourteen months I worked Saturdays at a newsagents, opening up, serving customers and closing the till, and once rearranged a short-staffed morning so the papers still went out on time. I want to bring that reliability to busy afternoons with children aged 5–12, supporting homework club, the reading corner and free play. I am interested in literacy and care settings, and I stay calm when a room gets busy. Across the three days I am ready to help with reading support, settle free-play groups, and take direction from your supervisors.

Skeleton if you need starters: name the organisation → why you fit → one proof from your experience → what you will do on the days you are there.

Part 2 — write yours (the rest of the time). Create or open Placement Personal Statement in your Strand 2.2 folder if it is not there yet (title, organisation heading, body, cut-note subheading). Write a placement paragraph of 80–120 words for your named target organisation. The organisation must appear in sentence 1 or 2. The paragraph must say why you, and what you are offering on the days you are there. Then add two lines: what you cut from your full personal statement, and why it did not belong in first contact. If you are still choosing an organisation, use a name from the teacher's placeholder list and write for that place today.

Minimum viable before you leave: organisation named; why them; one concrete proof; what you will do; cut-note started. Aim for the full 80–120 words. If time runs short, you still need the organisation name plus at least three solid sentences before exit so Lesson 14 is not blocked.

This paragraph is the real text you will paste into your first-contact email next lesson. Save the paragraph and cut-note in Placement Personal Statement (Strand 2.2). It is working material for that email and evidence of tailoring for your Digital Portfolio / Portfolio in Action.

Talk these through with the person beside you, then decide what you still need to fix in your paragraph before next lesson.

• If your target supervisor read only your placement paragraph and nothing else, would they know why you picked them, or could the same paragraph go to any workplace in the county?
• Next lesson this paragraph goes into your first-contact email. Which sentence would make you hesitate to send it, and what would you change before you did?

Optional portfolio note: add one line under your cut-note naming the sentence you would still rewrite after hearing your partner.

Today you applied your personal statement to one workplace door.

• You marked a sample statement against a sample placement brief for relevance, cuts and gaps
• You wrote an 80–120 word placement paragraph for your named target organisation
• You recorded what you cut from your full statement and why it did not belong in first contact
• You stress-tested the paragraph as something a supervisor would actually read

Save the paragraph and cut-note in Placement Personal Statement (Strand 2.2). It is working material for your first-contact email next lesson and evidence of tailoring for your Digital Portfolio / Portfolio in Action.

Next lesson you turn this paragraph into a first-contact email. Bring the organisation name, a contact route, and today's draft.