Friday November 14th 2025
From left to right: Phil Bowen (Midlothian View Editor and Pigeon Penguin Web & App Development Owner), Isaac Flory (Work Experience Trainee) and Rebecca Harrison (Pigeon Penguin Developer).
This article has been written by Kate Flory of Kapow Coaching
As a parent of an S5 child, it’s that time of year in the education calendar when they step outside of the classroom and into the world of work for just one week. In our school catchment of East Lothian, the past two weeks was the time when our eager, and not so eager teenagers, experimented with the real world of work.
Like many parents, the task to find a local company that would be willing to take on our teenager for a week, showing them the ins and outs of a specific role, or the variety of jobs within their company, fell on our shoulders. A bit more to it than ‘take your child to school day’, for many of these young people it was an opportunity for a full emersion of fulfilling specific tasks, working with new people, being part of a team, and invariably trying something new. There was plenty of planning, health and safety checks, forms to be completed by the businesses, all before we could let loose our children into their chosen destination.
Having known Midlothian View for a while, they kindly offered a place for my son with their small, and young team at Pigeon Penguin. Yet, unlike many work placements, rather than the boss taking the new start under their wing, it was one of the young team who supported and trained my son. Rebecca is only a few years older than my son, Isaac, yet she stepped up to the challenge of explaining and teaching him complex PHP code, word press plug-ins, and CSS for a live local project. She told me that it was fun having to figure out how to explain something that you’d normally do without thinking about. This mentoring opportunity was a great way for her to realise what she did know, and to share her enthusiasm around web and app development with someone new. I’d hazard a guess that she enjoyed it, and got as much out of the experience as my son did.
As a manager and leader, it takes both trust and confidence in someone else to take a hands off approach with a new start. But that’s what Phil did. Phil Bowen, the modest but incredibly talented owner of Pigeon Penguin and Midlothian View, knew that to teach Rebecca about leadership, he had to let her get on with it, and to learn as she went. All with a watchful eye and a helpful nudge when needed.
It’s local businesses like Pigeon Penguin, who go out of their way to support their local school that help the next generation of wannabes find a passion they didn’t know was waiting for them. Many of these businesses go unnoticed and don’t seek out any recognition for their dedicated support and kind offers. So, from myself and other S5 parents – thank you to those of you who helped us and our youngsters. And to Phil, Rebecca, Callum and Liam, a big thank you for taking good care of my boy.
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