Good Practice - Case Study

Fearnhill School & The John Warner School

School Nos: 010 & 277

School Radio Stations

School radio stations are becoming more popular across the county, and there are many different options and possibilities when considering the use of this type of technology. Whatever solution you choose, running a school radio station has many benefits, for example:

• An engaging and exciting extra-curricular activity for learners.
• An way of communicating across the school with staff and pupils.
• An opportunity to develop scheduling and organisational skills.
• Develop Speaking and listening skills.
• Writing and presenting for an audience.
• Reinforce what has been learned in the classroom by making radio shows about topics covered.
• Share good work, original music compositions etc.

This case study looks at two secondary schools which have each taken a different approach to setting up and running their school radio stations.

Fearnhill Maths & Computing College

Fearnhill is a secondary school in Letchworth Garden City. The school purchased the “Synergy Portable School Radio Station” which incorporates all the equipment needed into one trolley, which can be moved around the school. The equipment consists of:

• An integrated PC with audio recording software and radio station management software installed
• A touch-screen monitor
• A digital mixing desk
• An amplifier
• Microphones and speakers
• Illuminated ‘Mic Live’ sign

A trainer from Synergy Radio spent two days in the school, providing training for a number of staff members. During this training they discussed not only how to use the equipment but also how it can used to support the curriculum.

The software installed onto the computer allows the user (DJ) to queue up different elements of the radio show, and add live speech to this queue. By simply tapping the touch screen or using the mouse the user can trigger a pre-recorded jingle, a song or, for example, a radio-play recorded by a different group of students. Entire shows can be pre-recorded and played back through the system, and even set to repeat itself.

With the addition of an FM transmitter the Synergy system can broadcast real FM radio, subject to the right licences.

The school has been using the radio station in different ways, with plans to significantly develop its use as more staff and students become familiar with it. As part of their Drama lessons, Year 8 students have recorded radio plays using the system, which they have first scripted and rehearsed. The benefits of digital recording mean that it is easy to edit recordings and cut out any unwanted parts, or insert recordings where needed.

Other students have recorded promotional material for the school trip to Chateau Beaumont, and school Sports Day. They have also begun to experiment with running live lunchtime radio shows in the canteen. This is an area the school plans to develop further in the future. A group of Year 8 also brought the radio station to Hertfordshire Development Centre to demonstrate its use to Standards and School Effectiveness staff at one of their staff conferences.

The John Warner School

The John Warner School in Hoddesdon is an all ability comprehensive school with just over 1100 pupils. They have a well established radio station called JWS Radio and its use forms part of the study towards Level 3 of the OCR i-Media Qualification.

Rather than purchase an all-in-one solution, the John Warner School have put together different pieces of equipment and software themselves to build a fully functional system that allows both live mixing and the playback of pre-recorded shows. The equipment consists of laptop computers with specialist software installed, a mixing desk and DJ mixing hardware, as well a PA system. This hardware DJ mixer (Behringer B-Control DeeJay) lets you play, mix and scratch different audio formats such as MP3 and wav. The main software used is Native Instruments ‘Tracktor 3.’ This is DJ software with two ‘virtual’ decks, together with a mixer and database which can be populated with audio tracks.

The radio station was originally set up in the 6th Form common room and could broadcast to that area through speakers. Additionally, the radio station also consists of a streaming server running Nullsoft ‘Shoutcast’ software. This enables the radio shows to be broadcast to desktop computers on the school’s network, where they can be accessed through Windows Media Player or iTunes. The set-up has subsequently been moved to a different area of the school to provide more of a ‘studio’ experience for pupils, when preparing and recording shows.

JWS Radio is not only used as part of study towards Level 3 of the OCR i-Media Qualification. Students lower down the school use the Open Source ‘Audacity’ digital-audio software to record their own shows away from the main radio setup, which can be played back to the whole school as part of a broadcast. Different students take roles in running the station, for example Student Technicians and Scheduling Manager. There are also scheduled slots throughout the week where interested students can come along to the radio station to try their hand at using the equipment, with the guidance of those more experienced, during lunch breaks.

Important information about licencing

You may need different licences to run a school radio station, depending on your set up and what and how you plan to broadcast. If you are interested in running a school radio station it is essential that you contact the PPL (Public Performance Licence) and PRS for Music (Performing Rights Society) to discuss your plans, so that they can advise you on the licences you need. Don’t be put off, most licences are not expensive.

Please contact:

PPL

Natalie Thomas
Tel: 0207 534 1423
Email: natalie.thomas@ppluk.co.uk

PRS

Tel: 0207 306 4991