Radio Station Links
Sometimes it is possible for a Chaplain to make helpful links between the school and its local community. Teachers can seldom find time to set up meetings outside the school building, whereas you are better placed in this respect. If it is planned carefully with the school you regularly support, making a link between a school and a local radio or a local newspaper can be educationally most worthwhile. Such a link can offer a Primary School teacher or a Secondary School English or RME teacher some outstanding real-life contexts for learning – and a highly stimulating way of discussing issues around beliefs and values.
One Edinburgh primary school has taken the initiative of linking up with Midlothian Community radio, Black Diamond FM https://www.blackdiamondfm.com/ They successfully invited a radio reporter to visit the school and interview pupils about their understanding of the meaning of Christmas. Pupils were also invited to pick a favourite Christmas song and mention their family – especially someone who may not be able to be with them over the Christmas holiday. The resulting interviews were then edited and broadcast.
Because the pupils are well supported by both the teacher and the radio supporter, there is no reason why pupils from every stage, P1 to P7, cannot be involved in interviews. Once parental permission is sought and obtained, the practicalities of interviewing pupils in school are easy to organise.
Real-Life contexts for learning
As always, deep learning is only possible if such an experience is planned carefully within a wider programme of learning. At the Edinburgh school, the interviews were linked specifically to a topic on Christmas and what children perceived it to mean. Some responses included love, family and of course, celebrating the birth of Jesus.
A variant on radio interviews is press interviews. A local paper may well be willing to carry an article about children’s views on Christmas or Easter. After an initial contact by the teacher with the Editorial desk, pupils could easily write and submit their own article, possibly including the results of a survey of family members, quotations from people they have interviewed, etc. A newspaper photographer may well be able to visit the school to take photographs of the “Junior News-hounds” at work.
Radio interviews (or links with a local newspaper) can provide a useful focus for a number of topics. Curriculum for Excellence emphasises the importance of real-life contexts and of cross-cutting themes such as Creativity and Citizenship, both of which are very well supported by this activity. Preparation offers real-life contexts for the development of Literacy/talking, there are obvious opportunities for aspects of media studies. Various topics related to RME can make a highly stimulating focus for an interview or article (e.g. Christmas, Easter, harvest thanksgiving – or for older pupils: war and peace, our stewardship of the environment, etc., etc.).
Contacting your local radio station
Local and community radio stations are often happy to broadcast short features involving children at appropriate times of year. Especially if a school can be a little flexible about the timing of interviews (to allow a station to fit these in a round other commitments), the station may well be willing to have a reporter visit the school. Permission must of course be sought from parents in advance, with forms duly signed. The radio station will probably have appropriate forms, though a school should also check in advance with the local authority, which will almost invariably be keen to support such community involvement. One potential contact in the Central Belt of Scotland is Christian-based Radio Station, Revival Radio: https://www.revivalfm.org/