You Need To Listen To This Podcast Episode About A Melbourne Primary School’s Lockdown Radio
Alice hosts the 'girls' rock' show, where she talks about how amazing Joni Mitchell is.
Schwartz Media (The Monthly, The Saturday Paper) podcast 7am‘s newest episode is dedicated to one of the few good things to come out of Melbourne’s COVID-19 lockdowns: the Brunswick North West Primary School’s radio station.
As music teacher Jack Madin told 7am host Ruby Jones, the school students have had one of the world’s longest lockdowns, as the school is in one of the suburbs that were in stage four lockdown conditions back in June — a fortnight before the rest of the city followed. With morale low among staff, parents and students, Madin had the idea of starting a radio station: an “side project” and “experiment” which soon ballooned out.
“My whole teaching is about singing and dancing together, doing stuff together, whole group stuff and all of a sudden it was all on a screen, it was all pretty difficult,” says Madin. “So when we did go into that second lockdown, I tried to think of a way to build a kind of connection — a connection between the students and the parents, as well…. And so we got BNWPS Rado going.”
With the students getting super invested, things evolved. There’s now a request line, a ‘girls rock’ show from music captain Alice, quiz and maths shows and even an agony aunt segment with Chris, the canteen lady. Jones also interviews several students about the radio, and she’s interviewed by them, for the station.
Listening to the episode is easily the sweetest thing you’ll do all day.
Find it below on Spotify, on 7am‘s site or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Feature image from SchoolRadio.com‘s Facebook page