Tag: Working in Schools

Podcasting in Plain English plus Frankley Talks again.

Students at Frankley High have returned to their experiment with podcasting which I was helping to support last year. It’s taken a while to get back but we’re hoping to create a learning group where those who worked with us last year begin to show the teachers how to use the kit.

We also went through a fascinating process for a Creative Partneships project – we had a series of teachers pitch to us about how they would like to use podcasting.

It is a really positive starting point for any school work because it helps the staff focus on why they might want or need your support. It allows us to put our effort where we are most likely to find the enthusiasm to turn the skills into something of mainstream value, which of course is likely to further encourage other teachers to experiment with social media.

Anyway thanks to Laura for listening to the warm up podcast for a year 9 group and commenting. Laura also helped me spot this youtube film from commoncraft on her blog. Useful woman: Laura.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-MSL42NV3c&eurl]

Update. Thanks also to Andy for his thoughtful comment on the Frankley Talk blog about the problems of background noise and people with hearing problems.

Quinzone, Safe Haven and Community Policing – new podcast on the Grassroots Channel

PC Bernie Flynn has been working with young people in Quinton in Birmingham consistently since 2001, merging policing with youth work. For him finding the right people for the job and giving them time to show respect and earn respect is at the heart of good community policing. Anti social behaviour in and around his patch has fallen by 40% and in this podcast he explains how that has happened.

This is the most recent in a number of programmes on the channel about the link between policing, and community including the residents who run their own police station, patrol their own streets, those who had the courage to confront pimps and prostitution and how young people act as agents for safer streets.

 
Birmingham Community Empowerment Network

Quinzone and Safe Haven (dead link)

West Midlands Police

Briefing on Neighbourhood Policing as a pdf

Allotment Sense

Refurbishing allotments used as a fly tipping ground and making the plots available for schools is one of the best uses I’ve come across for the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund. Of course NRF was never about things the council should do (like maintain allotments), but at least this £39,000 spend has the potential to extend sustainable life styles in a neighbourhood and create a new space for community building among the 65 plots in Stetchford.

It’s also potentially a much better take on active young people than the toddlerobics I recently read about. See also the podcast below for a good listen on allotments and young people.