Podcasts Quell Exam Fears

Profiles in Success: Windsor Boys School

When exams are just around the corner, many students let fear of failure affect their performance. So why not video the dreaded GCSE results day, and make a podcast to show that it’s not as scary as it sounds? Windsor Boys School did just that, proving how podcasting can tackle a wide range of learning problems in unexpected ways.

“The idea was simply to take the heat off some of the boys taking maths GCSE early”, explains Paul Fooks, eLearning Manager at Windsor Boys School. “In fact the podcast is really motivational because it shows the excitement of achievement. And it shows how people can handle disappointment too, and bounce back if grades aren’t as good as expected”.

Windsor Boys School, with nearly 1,000 students, is a successful state school for 13 to 18 year olds. It has been awarded High Performing status by the UK Government as a ‘Specialist Arts and Vocational School’, and is a ‘Mentor School’, supporting other schools in their drive to raise attainment. The school is also a sports hub for the local community.

The school has long believed that technology is key to its success and continuing development. It has an online learning environment, focusing on arts, mentoring and sport. One of its rapidly expanding online media forms is podcasting, as the school seeks to engage directly with staff, students, parents and the wider community.

As eLearning Manager, Paul Fooks’s aim is to present innovative ways of working with technology, to challenge the school’s perceptions and broaden its horizons. He works with staff and students to deliver a wide range of podcasting initiatives — in line with the school’s academic and pastoral objectives.

“There’s such a wealth of content and knowledge out there in the school. Podcasting scores high because it’s such a simple way to capture it and make it widely available and reusable time and again.”

Paul Fooks, eLearning Manager, Windsor Boys School

“I’ve always worked with Macs, because over the years I’ve found I get more work done with them than using PCs”, says Fooks. “The great thing about using Apple software for developing podcasts is that you don’t have to think about the quality of the output. You can concentrate on the input”.

Podcasting at the school has developed in a deliberately piecemeal way, says Fooks, with each teaching department gaining confidence from the success of others, and coming forward with their own projects. “Great things don’t happen overnight”, he says. “This is a very new way of developing teaching and learning materials, and the slow burn approach is more effective for us than a structured programme of activities”.

The first content input for a podcast venture was the school’s Christmas carol service in 2006. Downloads from the website showed Fooks and other staff members that the podcast medium was very popular with the school community, and that in-house skills and equipment could achieve good production standards.

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