Thomas Hardye School get on the air with Podcasting workshops

Over the past six weeks, we’ve had a great time running a series of podcasting workshops with a brilliant group of Year 9 and 10 students from Thomas Hardye School in Dorchester. Their energy, thoughtfulness, and willingness to dive into new creative territory made the project something truly special.

The theme guiding our sessions was ‘identity’ a topic big enough to explore, yet personal enough to spark personal stories. To begin with, we discussed what identity can mean: our backgrounds, our interests, the communities we belong to, and the experiences that shape us. From these conversations, each student wrote a short piece that they would later record for the podcast.

Some pieces were reflective, others funny or even poetic, and regardless of where they took it stylistically, each offered a glimpse into the writer’s world. No two sounded alike.

At the start, many were understandably nervous about recording themselves, but their confidence grew steadily and by the final session, they weren’t just reading words, they were performing them.

Sharing personal writing takes courage at any age, and these young people created a space where everyone felt safe and heard. Their encouragement and respect for each other helped to shape the tone of the sessions.

By the end, we had a set of thoughtful, recordings that captured the individuality of each participant. It was a privilege to work with these amazing young authors, and we can’t wait to work at Thomas Hardye’s again.

A huge thank you to Mr Walker and Mr Rutherford for giving us the opportunity to work with these young voices and for making the sessions run so smoothly.

As always, the young people were ably supported by our incredible team of volunteer writing mentors who gave up such a lot ion their time to support the students in their writing and performing, so a massive thanks must go to Jon, Valerie, David, Nick and Ambs for all of their hard work. We couldn’t do it without you.