Dom Chambers gives a tour of the facilities at media training charity, Sound Vision
Transcript
00:00 This is the Sound Vision training facilities where, thanks to grants from people like the
00:06 People's Postcode Lottery, we've been developing these facilities. This is where we're offering
00:11 safe spaces for young people to come in and develop their creativity without fear of being
00:17 laughed at. We find that that is possibly the biggest concern of many young people that
00:23 come across this threshold, is that they won't step forward, they won't step up in class,
00:29 and they kind of shrink into the shadows of the playground because they're worried about
00:33 being mocked. But with us you can develop your creativity and we understand that developing
00:39 creativity and the creative process is about getting things a little bit wrong before you
00:43 get them right. That's the process. We encourage that. Let's go in and see what's happening
00:49 in the facility today.
00:57 And here we have a number of work stations where the young people from schools come in.
01:05 And I like to inspire a little bit with visual arts. So these are paintings by the local
01:11 artist Luke Piper. And obviously it's Christmas time of year and so we've had a lot of fun
01:18 decorating the tree, putting the tinsel up, lots of Christmas hats, so everybody coming
01:23 in here gets into the festive spirit. And here at one of our training desks is Maggie.
01:30 Hello.
01:32 Maggie, what are you up to?
01:35 Well, we've had some students in this morning from Fossway School and Alfie has been putting
01:42 together his sound vision show, if you'd like to hear a little bit.
01:45 Yes.
01:46 Our next song is On Top Of The World, released in 2012 and was the album of the night visions
01:53 entices the audience to live like the forest.
02:01 And so he's put that together.
02:03 So this is Alfie, is it?
02:04 Yep. Alfie's been putting this together.
02:05 And how long has he been coming to us?
02:07 Only since September.
02:08 Okay. And so what is the point of him? Why is he here and why is other students from
02:13 Fossway or indeed other schools, why do they come in?
02:16 It gives them an opportunity to come out of the classroom and to be creative. So they're
02:22 not just sitting having to learn the usual maths and English and they can put their creativity
02:29 to the fore. And also someone like Alfie, very quiet, doesn't hardly speak really. But
02:36 as you heard on here, he's just come to life. He smiles all the time and he just loves it.
02:42 And he has several attempts at this because he kept saying version instead of vision.
02:47 And he was laughing at himself doing it, which was really nice. So he doesn't feel self-conscious.
02:52 So he had a few goes and then he's put this together.
02:55 That's great to hear. And that's going to go out on our partnering radio station, which
03:00 is Summer Valley FM.
03:01 That's right.
03:02 When will that go out?
03:03 That will be going out in the new year on a Tuesday evening at six o'clock.
03:07 Now you're involved with all the schools around here, not just Fossway, but we've got Riddlington,
03:11 Norton Hill, Summervale. So we talk about all the schools, all the secondary schools
03:15 of our area. Just describe briefly what it is that you do.
03:21 So the students come in, they come in for 12 weeks and I have a set sort of schedule
03:27 for them. So they start by, I introduce them to the desk and then they record their voices.
03:33 I show them how to use Audacity, which is the editing software we use. And then they
03:39 can choose if they want to make a radio show or do a podcast.
03:43 And we also do music training, but that's not with you. You're very much around for
03:47 the audio creativity.
03:48 That's right.
03:49 It's not the old world where you talked about radio. Now it's more about podcasting, but
03:53 it's really developing sort of verbal skills and a confidence to speak and speak in front
03:59 of people.
04:00 Absolutely it is. And a lot of our students will say, you know, I was a bit shy before.
04:05 Now I don't mind speaking up. So once they've heard their voices for the first time and
04:10 they've gone, Oh, do I really sound like that? They soon get used to it. And then it's just
04:15 by the time they've finished an hour long show, they're used to hearing their voices
04:19 and happy for it to be aired out.
04:21 So how do you think this helps young people's sort of positive progression, either from
04:26 an educational point of view or indeed what they might be doing after they leave education?
04:31 I think it helps them with their confidence. I think it shows them that there is more to
04:39 school than just sitting in a classroom and learning French or geography. They can come
04:45 and they can be creative and they can do something that could lead on to a future.
04:51 One of the little boys yesterday from Somerville said, when I leave school, I'm going to come
04:57 and work here. And so I explained, well, actually it's their volunteers because it's a community
05:02 radio station. And he said, so what it would be like a hobby. And I said, yeah. And he
05:07 went, yeah, no, I like that. And he's only year seven. So he's only 11 years old. And
05:11 already he's thinking I could come and work here. So he's loved it.
05:16 Well I mentioned that it was the People's Postcode Lottery that helped us develop this
05:20 training facility. But also part of that grant and indeed key to other supporters as well
05:27 is the fact that we have developed qualifications, haven't we? We've developed a certificated
05:33 outcome if you look at it from a sort of funding narrative point of view. And we're delivering
05:39 arts awards. Tell us about those.
05:40 So we delivered the Bronze Arts Award. Let's think how many we've done. A dozen perhaps
05:49 over the last few years. We've got several students.
05:52 It's actually more than that.
05:53 Is it?
05:54 Because when we were delivering them within schools on our alternative provision program,
05:59 we're now doing this for our after schools training. But since this grant was awarded
06:05 in 2022, we've delivered around 40 arts awards. But actually we're building the capacity.
06:14 But what I'd love to hear from you, Maggie, is what is the advantage of somebody getting
06:19 an arts award?
06:20 I think it would show a future employer that the student can work at a certain level and
06:27 that they've got an interest. And also as far as we're concerned here, it helps them
06:33 to learn. So part of this, part B, where they have to be part of an audience. And that's
06:40 really useful because I can say, OK, let's have a listen to some of the other shows on
06:44 demand and have a listen and see what other DJs are out there. And then they get some
06:50 great ideas from there. And so it will improve the work that they're doing here for the radio
06:56 station.
06:57 What about this idea of encouraging creativity? It's slightly different, isn't it? And I think
07:01 appropriately different. There's a kind of need for what we do because it isn't about
07:05 classroom learning, is it?
07:07 No, that's right. It's very different. So we have students in here who absolutely love
07:13 being here because they don't have to sit still and be quiet. It's sort of the opposite
07:17 of that, really. I always say to them, no, talk as much as you like. This is great. And
07:22 then they have got the opportunity to go running outside. They've been sitting here for sort
07:27 of longer than about 10 minutes and they need to move. Or we put a song on and they're dancing
07:31 around and getting some energy out. So it's really great for those students who do find
07:36 it quite constraining being in a lesson for 40 minutes or however long.
07:40 So I would say, and you're from an educational background yourself, you've got special educational
07:44 needs experience and qualifications. In fact, you actually worked in a prison developing
07:48 life skills at one point.
07:50 I did. Absolutely did.
07:51 Briefly away from education. So thanks to you and these facilities, we're on track as
07:58 a charity to be delivering over 100 Arts Awards in the current year. So we can see we started
08:05 in April 2020 with our first Arts Award and we're developing capacity. But you're smiling,
08:11 Maggie.
08:12 I love it. I love it.
08:13 I think you love what you do.
08:14 I do. Yeah. I just love the children that come in. I love to see how excited they are.
08:19 I like to see them smiling. It's wonderful. I've never had any trouble with any of the
08:25 children because they just love coming. They love being here.
08:27 Excellent. Well, thank you so much. We'll let you get back to editing that work so it
08:31 gets out on our radio station. And for the purposes of this film, I want to show you
08:36 one last thing.
08:47 I just want to show you where we're located because this training facility, if you look
08:52 over here, is next to Somervale School. That is one of the secondary schools of the Midsomer
08:59 Norton and Radstock area. Just over the way there, you've got Norton Hill. You can't quite
09:04 see it from here, but it's just up the road here. And then a couple of miles away, you've
09:08 got Riddlington. There's a big sixth form here as well. And we work with Bath College.
09:12 So we're incredibly well located for young people to come into these facilities or indeed
09:17 for us to go into the schools. And it's all thanks to the fantastic support of the People's
09:24 Postcode Lottery and other funders and grant funders. Keep the support coming in. We can
09:29 only grow because there's a greater demand for what we do than we're currently able to
09:34 deliver. We're building capacity. And thank you for helping us do that.
09:37 [BLANK_AUDIO]