This has been a wonderful experience! The only regret I have is that I didn’t speak enough. I learnt multiple new things and gained a new outlook on certain things. If I could, I would love to do this again!”
Year 9, Phoenix Academy
A podcast for students, by students
As part of generous funding from the Mayor of London’s New Deal for Young People, Routes2Success has been able to expand our work in London secondary schools to run special, expert-led race equality action projects. The first of these was held with Year 9 students from Phoenix Academy in West London, in partnership with expert role-model, DD Armstrong and creative arts and education social enterprise, Castletown Arts.
Phoenix Academy students decided they wanted to create their own podcast series, called the #SpeakEasy podcast. We worked closely with them, and their teachers, to empower the students to encourage crucial conversations, and understand more about how to set up, plan and execute a podcast.
This project diverged from our traditional mentoring sessions, which split male and female students up with role-models and mentors of similar ethnicities. Instead, these projects united boys and girls in mixed groups to encourage dialogue around important issues that affect them. With the help of their role-model, DD, the young people took the lead in creating the content and deciding what the topics would form part of the podcast, such as behaviour management, mental health, policing, the Windrush Generation, Empire and more.
Listen to the first episode on Teaching and Behaviour.
The full series will be available on our Soundcloud as new episodes become available!
You can read more about the launch of the Podcast series here.