Created by Terry Parker
What was the school trying to achieve?
The cultures of the two merging school were very different, one having a high ethnic population, the other none, and both students and staff were apprehensive about the future. Local enthusiasm towards amalgamating the two schools into one had been somewhat muted. Cultural understanding being one of the key concepts in the new curriculum, this was the main focus of the project. Staff wanted to give voice to the pupils’ ideas and involve them in shaping the future. Communicating and sharing this vision with the local community would be a way of generating a more positive perception of the newly amalgamated school. The school was fortunate in that it already had a radio studio with regular in-house broadcasting. Using radio as a vehicle for learning meant that all contributions could be readily shared and made public.
Staff wanted radio to become an accepted form on which to ‘platform’ learning. Thus year seven pupils and a selected cross-section of staff were invited to share their ideas to create a vision of the ‘school for the future’ using the technology of radio and the common ground of art.
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