Wednesday 20th March saw The Johnson Foundation host the third Great Wirral Conversation in partnership with Young Chamber and Age UK Wirral. 12 year 8 girls from Birkenhead High School Academy, along with their teacher Mr Austin, joined a group of retired ladies to talk about achievement and how it can be measured. The girls wrote together the following account of their visit.
It was a cheerful occasion, especially being on International Happiness Day. At the start of this fantastic experience, our first task was to make cups of tea for the ladies and introduce ourselves. Then, we split into two groups of six students, three mature ladies and a leader.
We talked about what achievement is to us and on the whole we decided that it is measured by our level of happiness. Money was not the priority for us. It can’t be measured in monetary terms. We talked about personal goals, the jobs we wanted in the future and how the world has changed between the ladies’ careers and the present. We discussed how achievements of men and women are judged differently and the effects of social media on this.
Achievements can be anything that makes you feel good inside. It doesn’t have to be big and it doesn’t have to be what other people think.
Beth and Eloise said, “It was a lovely day. Everybody enjoyed it very much and we would all love to go again. The ladies were very nice to us and we had fun.”
“We learned a lot of new things about achievements and what you can do to support other people with their achievements”, said Mya. Rebecca added, “it was good how we got to know other people in our year and the ladies too.”
Christina liked how “we learned about other people’s opinions on achievements” and Aimee said “it felt that we had known the ladies for ages even though it was only two hours. I loved the opportunity of making new friends.”
Lila mentioned that “it was nice knowing their background stories and finding out what achievement actually means.”
One of the ladies, Bernie, said to Mr Austin afterwards, “these girls are so confident, I really enjoyed talking to them. I don’t get to talk to young people very often and it’s comforting to know that they are our future.”
