Fire up! Blackfriars is recruiting new students to be part of their student led podcast, The Torch.
The school is looking for students, Year 6 and above, to be part of the team recording, editing and producing the Blackfriars podcast, The Torch.
Year 11 student Hudson Cosgrove said creating The Torch was a “great way to be involved in the Blackfriars community”.
“I like being able to involve so many staff and students through interviews and being allowed to decide on who we should interview; it’s a great thing,” Hudson said. “It definitely is something that’s really fun, creating great communications skills. I would definitely recommend it.”
Since its launch in February 2021, and following the success of the Hounds in Lockdown podcast, The Torch has covered everything from teacher interviews to the annual swimming carnival.
For Year 11 student Harry Boyd-Turner, his involvement in The Torch hit a high point last year, when he was honoured with an “On the Mic” award at the 2021 Arch D Podcasting Awards.
Harry and Hudson, together with old scholar Kevin Mach (BPS’21), are also in the running to be named the Podcast Team of the Year at this year’s Arch D awards.
“I like being able to walk around and get to speak to everyone around the school, being able to go to out of school events to interview people and being able to create a show that best reflects our school,” Harry said of his involvement in The Torch.
“Other students should get involved because more students and more hands on deck means more podcasts. Not only will students be able to teach the listeners about the school, but they themselves will be able to learn more.”
James Meston, from Arch D, said The Torch was an excellent example of student-led reporting.
“The Torch is one of the only podcast examples that I know of where students have taken the helm and looked to tell the news about what’s going on at the school from their perspective,” Mr Meston said. “It’s refreshing, it’s innovative … it’s student voice at its best. Podcasting is the future of audio. To put it in perspective, its growth in both creator and listener terms follow, almost lock-step, the growth of streaming TV services; it’s grown 40% in the last three years alone.
“The see Blackfriars and Catholic Education SA as a whole embracing it as a tool for building communication and collaboration skills, while at the same time giving students the media skills of the future, is an inspiration.”
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