Oak Lodge School Takeover - Student Voices from a SEND School

In this episode Oak Lodge School is taking over the show – cue the cheers! 🎉

Meet our brilliant new pupil podcasters from Oak Lodge as they jump behind the mic for the very first time and share a bit about themselves and their interests. Then, the takeover continues with an exclusive interview with Head Teacher Miss Walker, we meet Carol and Yasmin for a behind-the-scenes visit to the Oak Lodge Shop, and a fun chat with Mr. Shirley, one of the school’s amazing teachers.

Get ready for an inspiring, heartwarming, and totally unique glimpse into life at Oak Lodge!

Project Managers: Andrea Rai & Phil Powell.

Editor: Phil Powell

Project Managers: Andrea Rai & Phil Powell
Editor: Phil Powell

Huge thanks to the National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund for supporting our Dis-labled podcast. Learn more about their amazing work: https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk

All enquiries: podcast@communityfocus.co.uk
Website: https://www.communityfocus.co.uk/

Theme Music: Rastko Rasic & the students of Community FocusOther Music: Jazzy Frenchy by ⁠⁠⁠Benjamin Tissot

Transcript

SPEAKER_15 0:06

Community for the good. Community for good with you for you. With me and you.

SPEAKER_14 0:22

Hello. This is every college takeover show. Welcome to Arc High School. Yellow. This is Electric School.

SPEAKER_08 0:38

I this is Jade and I 16 years old. I go to I go to four to that one and this is on knees. And this is no need. Because of mud.

SPEAKER_06 0:51

It's cool. It's cool. It's cool. It's cool. Yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow, yellow. I like cool too much.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

It's cool, it's cool. I like it. Welcome to O'Clock School.

SPEAKER_14 1:06

Hello, welcome to Ocklock School. We are a school that helps to take care of our testing people and people with other festival needs.

SPEAKER_04 1:15

I like it. My name is Pia.

SPEAKER_17 1:24

You are very welcome. You're very, very welcome.

SPEAKER_10 1:36

In the room we have Mr. Charlie.

SPEAKER_07 1:41

Hello Timmy.

SPEAKER_08 1:45

My name is Jaden. My name is everyone.

SPEAKER_05 1:51

My name is Kiat. The name's Daniel. My name's Tommy.

SPEAKER_18 2:00

My name is Kayden. I'm my name is Clergy.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

My name is Miss Maria.

SPEAKER_07 2:10

Hello. Welcome to the Occupy School. I am um Tibetia and I work as a learning support staff. Thank you.

SPEAKER_14 2:28

In this episode, Ivy Consciousness taking over the show. Woo! First we check in to see how everyone is doing. Then we interview our head teacher, Miss Walker. Visit the ivy cultural shop and chat with other teachers, Mr. Shelley. Now enjoy the show. What do you do again tell us we like music?

SPEAKER_18 3:01

Music and sounds. I like outside. I'm sight. Daniel, I got a quick week.

SPEAKER_14 3:12

Yes, I have. I've been listening to music. I've been watching on YouTube, watching solid.exe. I'm playing engine and back. I'm just happy. Yes, having a good day to have a good week today.

SPEAKER_05 3:28

Yes I do. I I I did the I did a good week. I d I did I did I did I did a good wig from from from Atom. I like Balamori and Sibber Base. Thank you. I'm happy about I I I'm I'm I'm I I I like watching Balamori. Iran have a good have a good wake. Good wig. Yes. Stay home. Oh my god. Um do you like it?

SPEAKER_16 4:04

Um gotcha box boon Roger week.

SPEAKER_13 4:14

Yes, football.

SPEAKER_09 4:16

Football. And who's playing?

SPEAKER_13 4:19

Um Counter Columbia. Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 4:25

I have have a good week.

SPEAKER_13 4:27

How you had uh God Yes It's good thanks.

SPEAKER_08 4:38

I'm done cooking at art. I'm done cooking at art. I cook Japanese m Japanese noodle salad. Japanese noodle salad. Did the work experience In Page is fun in Elstray T have a good week today?

SPEAKER_07 5:04

I do I did I'm doing I'm working, I'm busy, I'm working I'm doing party, I'm doing the fruit, the rice, cotchal, the stew, the chicken.

SPEAKER_09 5:21

Do you get to eat it?

SPEAKER_07 5:23

No, for everybody.

SPEAKER_09 5:25

For everybody?

SPEAKER_07 5:26

Yes. Hello, whole world to my family.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Now you're going to interview our head teacher, Miss Walker.

SPEAKER_05 5:53

What is your favorite sub chat, Miss Walker?

unknown 5:56

My favorite subject.

SPEAKER_12 5:58

Well, I like all sorts of things. When I was at school, my favorite subjects were English and history and PE.

SPEAKER_16 6:06

What do you this week?

SPEAKER_09 6:09

What did you do this week?

SPEAKER_12 6:12

What have I done this week? Well, I've done all sorts of things. I had a trustees meeting on Tuesday no on Monday. I had a business team meeting on Tuesday. I've had to write a report. I've had to do some emails, and I've been on break and lunch duties and I've spoken to lots of people. I go swimming every morning before I come to work. So I do do that. Um that's it. That's all I can think of at the moment, but I'm sure I've done lots of other things.

SPEAKER_14 6:50

What is your reaction to us interviewing you?

SPEAKER_12 6:54

I think it's a really nice thing to be able to do, and I'm looking forward to see what your questions are going to be.

SPEAKER_14 7:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_18 7:03

I enjoyed colours, coloury books.

SPEAKER_09 7:08

Do you enjoy colouring books?

SPEAKER_12 7:10

Well, not so much now. I did when I was younger and when I was at school, I used to like doing colouring, but at the moment I I probably don't do colouring very often.

SPEAKER_08 7:21

My question is, Miss Walker do you like football?

SPEAKER_12 7:26

I'm more of a rugby supporter than I am a football fan, so I support Saracens. But I do like Arsenal Football Club. If I have to choose a club, but last Saturday I went to Tottenham Hotspur ground to watch Saracens play Harlequins.

SPEAKER_08 7:46

Do you go to Saracen Stadium still? Do you go there?

SPEAKER_12 7:50

Not not as frequently as I used to be. I used to be a season ticket holder, but I'm not anymore. So I go sometimes.

SPEAKER_09 7:58

Chris's question is can we have a bigger school with more students?

SPEAKER_12 8:06

If I had lots of money, Christian, that would be a wonderful thing to do because actually bits of this building are falling apart, and I would very, very much like us to have a lovely new building, and then we could have lots more students. That would be fantastic, but we haven't got the money to be able to do that at the moment, unless there's someone very generous who's listening to this podcast who'd like to give us the money.

SPEAKER_09 8:34

Can we have a school uniform? Chris said he'd actually like to wear a school uniform.

SPEAKER_12 8:38

Well, we do have a school uniform for key stage three and key stage four. Post-16 don't have to wear a school uniform, but if they want to, they can. And that would be plain black and white. So if you want to wear a uniform to school, you can. But post-16, we're trying to get them ready to go out to work where they can choose the clothes. Sometimes when you have a job, you do have a uniform that you have to wear, but sometimes you can choose the things you wear. So we like to think that our sixth form will come into school looking smart and prepared as if they were going to go to work.

SPEAKER_13 9:18

How old is it?

SPEAKER_12 9:23

Oak Lodge was originally opened in 1916. It was one of the very first special schools in London, and I still have the original registration book, and I do have a punishment book that used to be filled in. There was a punishment book. And it was for boys, and there were a few girls, but it was mainly for boys. But it hasn't been on this site since 1916. It used to be in Oak Lane, I believe, but it's been on this site since the 70s. And the reason we call the Key Stage 3 building this centenary building is because it was finished in 2016, which was exactly a hundred years after Oak Lodge originally opened.

SPEAKER_14 10:17

If you retire, who's gonna be who's going to be the head teacher of this goal?

SPEAKER_12 10:23

Well, we won't know because if I retire or when I retire, the job has to be advertised. So it will go in a newspaper or on the website to say anybody is interested in being the head teacher at Lodge, could they fill in an application form? And if they were successful, they would be appointed as the head teacher, so we won't know.

SPEAKER_07 10:50

Miss Walker, you do like what music do I like?

SPEAKER_12 10:55

I like all sorts of different types of music. I like the Rolling Stones, I like folk music, I like listening to some classical music. I just like listening to all sorts of different music. Yeah?

SPEAKER_14 11:16

Well do you learn from all your students?

SPEAKER_12 11:18

What I've learned from everyone is that they all have a strength that every single person in the school has something that they're good at. Most people might find something a little bit difficult, but what is really lovely to see is how hard they try to make sure that the things that they find difficult they can practice and get better at, and it makes me very, very proud when I see how well all the students are doing.

SPEAKER_14 11:49

How long have you been looking in this school?

SPEAKER_12 11:54

One minute you want to know when I'm gonna return, and then how long I've been working in the school. I started working in this school in February 1997 as head teacher. So I have been here for a lot who can tell me how many years I've been here if I started in 1997? I'm not quite 150.

SPEAKER_09 12:32

What do you love about Oakland School?

SPEAKER_12 12:35

I think what I love is that every day is different, that all of the students surprise me every single day, and that the staff work really hard, and that I just really like coming to work every day because it is so different every day, and all of the students are fantastic.

SPEAKER_14 12:58

Thank you so much for letting us have you. Thank you so much for letting us have you.

SPEAKER_11 13:28

Some come in stock and some in are handmade by students from Oak Bridge College and Oak Lodge School. And I also happen to be myself an ex-student who graduated with a degree in illustration at Middlesex, and my name is Yasmin.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Well, hello, Yasmin. Hello, Carol. Well, thanks for that lovely introduction to the shop. What do you sell in the shop? Well, the things we sell for money are items and products that the students have made, which you're part of. So lovely handmade cards, um some wrapping paper that's been done, some pictures, uh your stitch books, um all sorts of little bits and bobs that they do at school. But what you can get for free here is a lovely atmosphere, a good will, a chat if you want one, if we have time, and meeting people from the community and actually letting the community interact with some of our students to get them used to being with people that aren't necessarily just their family or their teachers or their friends. And that seems to work really well in this environment. Where can we find the lodge shop? Well, Yasmin, the lodge shop is in an area of North London called East Finchley, and it's on East End Road in a suburb of North London, and the postcode is N2. The shops either side are very supportive of us, and they also uh speak to our students and say hello. So we're very safely tucked away in East Finchley in North London. What makes the shop so special? Well, I'd love to say me, but I don't think that's strictly true because this shop is very special because not only is it a shop where we sell things to the local community, but it's also a classroom for Oak Lodge School at Oak Bridge. We invite students to come in and do little sessions here, and we try and make things and we sell them to people who come in for a small amount just to cover our costs, and people get to know that the school is there, so it's a way of promoting it as well.

SPEAKER_11 16:31

How does the community get involved?

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Well, first of all, they come in the door, which is very helpful, and when they arrive, if there are students here, we make sure that we welcome the st the uh uh people coming in and we say good morning, and sometimes we introduce ourselves and we ask the hunter what their name is too, so we get that connection and communication with people from the outside world.

SPEAKER_11 17:08

Do you know how many students are working there?

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Every week on most days we have two or three students who come up from school and they stay for a whole period if they can, and during that time we try and do some skills that might help them in the future if they got jobs when they leave school in retail shops. What's the vision or future for the shop? Well, that's a very good question, Yasmin, because for the future of the shop, we would like it to be used by all sorts of people who need uh some assistance and guidance and training about uh what it means to be with the general public and help them with things and take money and wrap things and price things, and it's all to help their skills for the future.

SPEAKER_11 18:26

If you could put the shop anywhere, uh where would it be?

SPEAKER_01 18:31

I think ideally a bit closer to school would be good so that uh parents coming to school could visit it more easily than having to walk up the road. And that way they could come into the shop first and have a look round, and then if they have an appointment at the school, they can then just walk on through, so the flow would be better. But where we are is pretty okay. We're in the East Finchley neighbourhood, and I would say most people that live in the area now know that we're here.

SPEAKER_11 19:12

Do you get supported or funded?

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Yes, we do. We have some very generous charities uh that we apply to every year to help us fund the rent of the shop, because obviously that's something that has to be paid. Um and we're very lucky in that a few of these charities uh help us uh year on year, and that's because they believe in the ethos of the shop and can see that it's really good cause.

SPEAKER_11 19:51

When did the shop first open?

SPEAKER_01 19:54

I think it opened in 2015, I believe. So it's uh it's been about ten years now this year, since it first opened. How long have you worked as their manager for? Um I started at school, first of all, and then I came up here in 2017, I think it was. So that's about eight years, isn't it?

SPEAKER_11 20:24

Which artwork do you like out of Yasmin's designs?

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Well, I'm not telling you, Yasmin, because uh they're your designs. Well, actually, everybody, Yasmin does the most amazing illustration and artwork, and she's become a bit of a local celebrity in here, and people actually come in and ask for her cards. And sometimes they sell so well, I have to keep getting more from her. And she's you're very good. I said she then, but I mean you, of course. Um make things for the shop um with amazing generosity of time, application, and your skill. And I don't think anywhere else, probably in London, has got that. So we're very lucky to have your things and your cards are lovely. Um Yasmin also makes uh homemade books that she learned to do on YouTube in lockdown. So she stitches them together and uses some of her own artwork to stick on them. So they are unique in the true sense of the word. And I think they're probably my favourite thing.

SPEAKER_11 21:49

Since it's a beautiful sunny day, I really want to say thank you for telling us about the Lord Shop, and it was nice to see you.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

Well, it was lovely to see you too. Yes, I mean thanks everyone for listening. I hope we've given you a little bit of a inside into that special little later. And come and visit us anytime. Yes. Come in your drove because we need the business, guys. Thank you.

SPEAKER_14 22:25

Hello, this is this is Eric Lodge Takeover Show. We are here with Mr. Paul Shirley. How are you, Mr. Shirley?

SPEAKER_10 22:34

I'm very well, thank you, Daniel.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Who is Mr. Shirley?

SPEAKER_10 22:40

Who is Mr. Shirley? Mr. Shirley is a teacher at Oak Lodge School. Mr. Shirley. Wanna go shopping? I like to go to a big bookshop in central London called Foyles. And I like to go to another shop in London called Forbidden Planet.

unknown 23:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_10 23:05

Where they sell comic books and memorabilia and all kinds of cool stuff. One of my long-term favorites has always been the asterisk books, uh Tim. I'm liking them at the moment. Yeah, my week's been pretty good in rant. It's been quite busy because on Wednesday we had Parents' Evening. So I had to stay at school till quite late speaking to parents, but apart from that, it's been a good week and the weather has changed and it's a bit sunnier and warmer, and that has made everything feel much better. Good question, Christian. Um I I'm not a big, big fan of sports, but I like playing volleyball and basketball, and I like watching football sometimes. What do you like? What do you like? Right, Kia, I like uh board games, drinking tea. I quite like it, do you know, Kia, when Imran pretends to be ill at school. Because it's because it's quite funny. And he doesn't do it with me so much anymore, because he he always starts laughing whenever he once he uh starts to do it these days. But it always uh it always puts a smile on my face.

SPEAKER_14 24:53

Do you watch horror?

SPEAKER_10 24:56

Uh sometimes, Daniel. I've seen a few horror films. It's not one of my I wouldn't say it's one of my favourite genres though. I don't really I don't really seek out horror films, but I've I've watched a few, yeah. Do you watch horror films, Daniel?

SPEAKER_14 25:13

My favorite film is Child's Play. Well made you work, what made you want to work at Oak Law Chester Shelley?

SPEAKER_10 25:21

Well, Daniel, I came because I needed a job and I needed to earn some money, but I think I stayed mainly because of the people here, the students and the staff, and I think especially the students, because students at Oak Lodge do things every day, even if it's not such a good day, even if I'm having not a great day. Students at Oak Lodge make me smile and they make me laugh every day, and they do brilliant things, and it is a pleasure to work with all of you. The biggest Lego that I think I've ever built, I'd have to say I helped build it. I built it with my friend, was an Atat walker from Star Wars, and I'd say it was about yay big, about this high, and it was pretty cool because it it walked as well when we finished it.

SPEAKER_14 26:33

Guys, you're very welcome Goodbye from all of us and this community.

SPEAKER_18 26:52

Goodbye. Oh me too.

SPEAKER_17 26:57

Goodbye, that's just a fate.

SPEAKER_08 27:01

Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.

SPEAKER_07 27:09

Goodbye.

SPEAKER_14 27:11

Bless all of you for listening to this podcast. Thank you all for listening. We wish you good luck. Yo, this is OCL school.

SPEAKER_08 27:28

I99, it's Jaden. I'm 16 years old. I go to Oak Ghost, 47, Down Center, and a additional need. A digital need. Because of that.

SPEAKER_06 27:42

It's cool school. It's it's cool school. Yo yo yo yo yo.

SPEAKER_03 27:51

It's cool school. I like it. Welcome to O'Clock School.

SPEAKER_14 27:57

Hello. Welcome to Oaklock School. We are a school that helps to take care of autistic people and people with other social needs.

SPEAKER_04 28:05

I like it. My name is Pier.

SPEAKER_17 28:14

You are very welcome.

SPEAKER_15 28:21

Community focused. Community focused. We're here for you. With me and you.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

All the hours.

SPEAKER_15 28:37

At five talk. Yes, but a weekend with you. We're here for you. Yes.