Alva Academy is new 'SoundTown'

Elaine Birse 1594 - 1594 • Published 8 Oct 2008 12:30 1 Comment

RADIO Scotland presenters will be going back to school this year, Alva Academy to be precise, as the secondary school became the sixth BBC SoundTown.

The chaos and calm of a working radio station fitted snugly into a room normally occupied by Business Studies pupils, as the Hillfoots" school hit the airwaves on Tuesday morning.

Pupils and guests, including Lord Lieutenant Sheena Cruickshank and presenters of new show the Music Bed, Jim Gellatly and Amanda Millen, anxiously gathered in the make-shift studio.

Before going "on air" presenter Richard Cadey warmed up the crowd and told them 'the whole world could be listening'.

Then at 10.40am, three minutes later than planned, Alva Academy was officially launched as this year"s SoundTown by Head of BBC Radio Scotland, Jeff Zycinski, and head teacher John Meney.

The launch was done live on Fred MacAulay"s show, MacAulay and Co, speaking to the school from their Pacific Quay studio.

Over the next school year BBC Radio Scotland will broadcast various shows from the school and staff and pupils will have the opportunity to participate in them and make their own programmes.

They will have access to studio equipment and presenters to support their ideas.

Deputy Head Teacher, Stuart Clyde, will be the school"s SoundTown coordinator and spoke briefly on air at the launch.

He told the Advertiser, 'The school was ecstatic when we found out we would be a SoundTown.

'The skills and the personalities the BBC can bring to the school will offer a real once in a lifetime opportunity for the pupils.

'The staff and pupils in our school are incredibly enthusiastic, and we have had literally hundreds of ideas from the pupils for items on the radio.'

Three pupils, Paddy Boyd, Jack Wilson and Ashley White, became the school guinea pigs for the morning as they were set three challenges live on air.

In half an hour they had to make a sling for their arm, learn the phonetic alphabet and darn some of Richard Cadey"s rather holey socks.

Sixth year pupil Ashley came closest to winning with the best darning and nearly a perfect phonetic spelling of Alva Academy - falling on the last letter saying the interesting new word "Yulu" instead of the correct "Yankee".

Speaking afterwards, she said, 'I had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for and the first we knew about the challenge was live on air.

'I was nervous but it was a good laugh. I"d definitely get involved again, as long as it doesn"t involve phonetics.'

Music teacher David Clifford joined pupils Christie Scott (drums), Martin Mullady (guitar), Robert Stirling (bass) and Gamuchirai Nhengu (vocals) on the keyboard to play the funky "Gotta Have Soul" live.

David, who penned the song, praised his pupils for an impressive performance.

He said, 'We only had 20 minutes rehearsal time before we went live. It was not an easy piece to learn but working with kids of that quality does help.'

Throughout the rest of the day the school inserted into BBC Radio Scotland"s schedules with budding actors discussing their latest production in Radio Café and pupils guesting on the Tom Morton Show, telling listeners about the music scene at the school.

Mr Zycinski said, 'This is our sixth SoundTown but we"re really looking forward to working with the pupils and parents at Alva Academy. In the year ahead, BBC Scotland will have a particular focus on Scotland"s History and I"m sure we will benefit from having our SoundTown in Clackmannanshire - a part of Scotland that is so steeped in history.'

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This article appeared in Alloa & Hillfoots Advertiser 08 Oct 08

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

• 

  Suella Baird
  Unregistered User
  Dec 23, 18:35
  Report comment

  Hello:
  
  Please excuse me for barging in like this, but I have been trying for a very long time to re-connect with some friends who used to come to Grand Canyon University in Phoenix Arizona a number of years ago. Alistair Cruickshank taught geography, and his wife Sheena volunteered in our library. I believe the Sheena listed on this web page might be the very one I am seeking.
  
  If you know Sheen’a contact information, would you consider contacting her and giving her my email address sbaird2@q.com.
  
  If she is the correct Sheena, she will recognize my name. Their email had changed and they moved, and I lost contact. She did send me a Christmas card this year from the US where she was visiting her son and family, but she neglected to include areturn address—probably thinking I already had it.
  
  If you cannot do this for me, I fully understand, but please respond if you have the time.
  
  Thank you,
  
  Suella Baird
  
  Recommend?   Yes 0     No 0

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