BSME Talks | Tuning into the Reach British School Radio

On this episode of BSME Talks, we revisit a standout moment from the BSME Annual School Leaders’ Conference 2026: the exciting launch of Reach British School Radio.

Nalini is joined by Kirsty Robertson, Head of Sixth Form, and Zain, a Year 12 student and members of the Reach British School Radio team, for an inside look at the story behind the station.

Broadcast to an audience spanning 46 countries, the launch at the BSME Annual School Leaders' Conference captured global attention, but the journey to get there was anything but simple.

Together, they explore what it really takes to build a school radio station from the ground up, the key considerations for schools looking to do the same, and the powerful impact student-led media can have across an entire school community.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Hello and welcome to BSME Talks, BSME's podcast that brings you real conversations about what matters in international education. I'm Nalini Cook, COO of BSME, British Schools in the Middle East, and this episode we're going to be talking to Reach Radio, a school radio station that was launched at our recent BSME annual school leaders conference, took huge acclaim. We're going to be looking at what the motivation for starting a school radio station was, what the biggest challenges have been, and how it's impacted the wider school community. I'm delighted to be joined here today by Kirsty Robertson, who is head of Sixth Form at Reach British School, and year 12 student Zane, both of whom are founding members of the project, and we're going to find out a little bit more about their experiences. So let's get started. Every great project starts with a why, with some motivation. What was the moment that prompted you to think about launching a school radio station and how did you move that from an idea, from a vision to reality?

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Good morning. So yeah, it started all four years ago. So Mr. Andy had put the idea around before, but no one really kind of took that idea on at that stage. They had different priorities. And then Craig also joined Reach and he asked Andy in a meeting, what's the one thing that you haven't been able to implement so far for whatever reasons? And Andy said the radio. He had these ideas, these huge dreams about what would happen with the radio. And Craig took that on board. And four years later, we've done so much in between that time, but four years later now we're we're sitting in front of you. I only actually joined this year, and the radio team as we have it now that you met at the BSME are very new to this side of the radio. But it's been working so well. We've implemented using the radio in the morning assemblies, and Mr. Andy and Craig are spearheading being able to kind of launch the news and events and everything that we have in the morning assemblies before we play the national anthem. Because we have everybody stood outside, primary and secondary. Outside come rain or shine, they're out there. It starts off with music, and we have a good few minutes of music and some songs that are appropriate for schools. We have the music and then we pass down to the team downstairs that have their mics ready and they read out the news. And that's a mixture of primary students and secondary students. But yeah, four years ago, in fact, we we had our anniversary at the BSME conference as well. It was the same day that we'd launched, which was quite ironic at the time. Fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

So moving that from an idea to actually, I mean, I'm looking at your setup for those who are just listening in. Um, they've got a very professional setup uh in front of them with mics and headphones, and there's a radio desk. How did that actually come about? Moving it from being an idea on paper to actually getting everything in place and being able to get started?

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Yeah, so we've got an amazing technical team. And when I joined, the equipment was already here. So it was just about updating and utilizing it and adding new things as technology kind of advances. I'm not saying it's the most up-to-date technology because I don't think you ever can be because things are evolving every day. But for a radio station, when I walked in and first saw this station, I was just shocked. Shocked at how professional it looked, shocked at what we could do with it as well. And I didn't realise that we could go live externally until they told me. I thought it was just being able to use it within the school. So that was something that was incredible. But I think the team behind it, the technical team, like I say, Mr. Andy, when he first joined them and was able to bring the radio to life with the technical side, is what's really pushed it forward to being at this point.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Now, Tech, as we've experienced ourselves this morning, doesn't always play ball. And you've obviously got a whole team behind you who are helping support the radio. What were some of the other challenges or perhaps the biggest challenges that you faced in actually bringing the radio station to life?

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Yeah, so hi everyone. So basically, when we were launching the radio in the BSME conference, I was asking Mr. Andy some like the questions about how much of a process it was. And he said that this wasn't actually the first like talk he's had about launching a radio station, but every time he's mentioned it, it's been a bit like underwhelming to the people he's presented the idea to. They didn't see the vision fully that Mr. Craig did, and it just made it that much beautiful and that much more, you know, inspiring to everyone that we actually got to this point. Because you know, when everyone tells you that your idea might not work and then it finally works, it's that much more satisfying, you know.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

I think it's really easy, isn't it, to say no, we've got different priorities if you're not seeing the same dream. And I think if something's more seems a bit more difficult and and there's hurdles, but but Craig kind of took it on and said, Nope, let's do it, and and then put us in front of you guys. It was his idea for that. So that was thank you for it.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Which we're very grateful for, yeah, definitely. Just seeing that vision. So it's actually at the very first stage. So it sounds like everything else went went smoothly, did it? Or were there any learning curves or fails along the way that you've perhaps learned from?

SPEAKER_02 5:37

I think one of the learning learning curves, like you mentioned before, is the technology. But for me personally, in the mornings, it's it's the music that we're able to play. It when I first joined and came over to the to the Middle East, I don't think we really listen to the words of songs. And it's kind of interesting when you sit down and think from with a safeguarding mind, can I play this? Is it appropriate? And we are very limited as to the songs that we can play out on the radio to the schools and and to parents. So I think for me, and and also the songs that we do play aren't always popular with with the students down there. I think for me, one of the biggest learning curves is looking at what is available externally to us and the support we can get with relying on external outlets for music and and being able to get them recorded in a way that we can use. Yeah. Bridged versions, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Yeah, I think that sounds like it takes quite a lot of time. How do you find the time to do all of this preparation?

SPEAKER_00 6:42

As you like already know, running a school is a bit, I think it's a bit like time consuming for the staff. Just a little bit, like managing that and the like a side aspiration that's like as big as the radio was obviously a little bit challenging for Miss and like for all like the staff like Jojo and Mr. Andy and everyone else that was involved. I feel like it took this much time because of the workload management. But I I mean at the end of the day, it was better to take more time so we could deliver it at such a high quality to you guys in the D SME conference when they launched it.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

And the the main goal is it's kind of we want it to be student-led. So we want to take it away from the teachers. And I think certainly for six form, it's nice to be able to give them something that they can use after they've left REACH and when they go into universities because they'll learn those skills, they'll take that confidence and they'll they'll move it forward into universities. So I think the time is very valuable to them, and it's kind of looking at it in a positive light of yes, it's it's taking the time, but it's going to be completely worth it because when you go to university, there's so much more than just the academic side that they require. So it's nice that even though we have primary students going all the way up, that it's kind of the older students in in secondary that really kind of spearhead things and pass that knowledge down to the primary. But we do have a couple of amazing primary students as well, as you as you've seen. So it's a nice collective, it really is.

SPEAKER_01 8:16

Sounds like you're learning a lot. Zane, you're growing up in an age of social media and scrolling, some might say doom scrolling. Um, a radio station is a little bit old school. How do you think that bridges the gap between different groups of students and staff who are of different generations in a way that perhaps other platforms can't?

SPEAKER_00 8:38

There are so many new like social media platforms that the newer generations have taken on that maybe the older generations might not understand because that's valid. It targets the like the dopamine and it targets the younger audience, which have a bit more like free time, like in school. TikTok, you know, like Instagram reels, all those platforms are like taking, for example, the people in my class, me as like as a person, like by by storm. So like me personally, I grew up I grew up in Leicester, and every morning to school or to like the nursery when I was little, we'd listen to the radio. Even like in when we moved here, I was originally in uh Georgia. We'd listen to Virgin Radio on the way on the way to school every year for like a few years. So that kind of like built my love for the radio. But I feel like the radio is so like universally, it has so many features that like like the older generation and the newer generation can enjoy. Like music, music is like it's loved by everyone, basically. And it's really just like such a good way to bring everyone together for such an enjoyable experience. And it's such a good way to help the younger students maybe learn some key information that the older people might have a bit more experience with. It helps people understand a bit more about what was happening before there was TikTok or before there was Spotify, but before there was everything, and how you can be a bit more social throughout your day.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Yeah, I definitely agree. Back in the good old days, hey. It's nice to see you're having a taste of it too. Now, looking forward, hopefully, this is a project. I know it's taken some time to come to fruition. You've had a wonderful launch and it seems to be going fantastically. If you were to look forward to, let's say, five years from now, what do you hope the radio station looks like? What's the what's the dream feature or the the tradition that you want to leave behind as your legacy, both as a student, Zane, and as a teacher, Miss Kirsty?

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Yeah, so me personally, I'm really big into basketball, like any sports. And whenever you tune into like a basketball game, like on ESPN or something like that, you have like a board of commentators, like talk about the game, talk about the players, talk about what's going on to everyone that's tuning in live. And I feel like that's such like a it's such a special thing, and it's such a good way to connect with everyone. Gives people even more of an incentive to tune in, like live sports broadcasting to like BSM or addict events would be so special. And also I feel like more podcasts with like more prominent figures, like more parents, more like anyone that can give their perspective on anything happening in like in terms of schooling or education that could like you know give people a reason to tune in would also be a really good thing to work on.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

Yeah, I think that's a really good point. With the last few years, we've been concentrating in-house and and doing things for reach in the school. And I think for for the school and for myself, it's about now using the platform that we had at BSME to reach globally and bringing that community together completely. So looking at things like the podcast and getting parents in to talk about the jobs that they're doing, getting universities in to talk to our students, having a wider platform and putting ourselves into a community that we can add so much to, but also that can add to us. Looking with other schools as well and working within the BSME and ISP communities and kind of bringing ourselves together, sharing best practice, things like that. So I think in in five years to have that fully established at that point would be fantastic. I don't know if that's unrealistic, but obviously it's it's definitely a nice goal to kind of aim towards. At the moment, you seem to blink and another day disappears, but it's definitely things that we want to do. But the ultimate kind of goal is just making sure that our students, but also other students and parents have a voice, and we give them that platform to use that voice and to be able to kind of share everything that they want to share by using this and bringing everyone together in one place. That that's kind of the whole point of this radio.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

I love that. So student voice at the heart of everything is 100%. Beautiful and great to hear that there are big plans for the future. You've given me some ideas, I think we've got to talk about. Nice. We we're rapidly running out of time, so I'm gonna wrap up as we do with every episode, reflecting on the significant and far-reaching impacts that teachers can have. We usually ask about a teacher that you had who's had the biggest impact on you and why. Now, Zayn, I'm gonna let you off this one because it feels a little bit like I'm setting you up here. So, as somebody who's currently in school, we'll uh come back to you perhaps in a year or two when you've graduated and see if there's an answer to that. But meantime, Miss Kirsty, any teacher who had a significant impact on you that left you with some good memories.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Yeah, so growing up all those many, many years ago when I was at school, no comments. So it was my English teacher, actually, funnily enough. And obviously, now I'm an English teacher too, and that's how much she inspired me. I didn't focus too much at school back then, which you know I'm paying my dues now. That the one teacher I I felt kind of reminiscent about it now, she she gave me so much comfort in the fact that I didn't have to always be perfect, and I think that was the the kind of issue I was struggling with. That if I couldn't do it completely right, I didn't want to do it. And she said to me, Well, if you if you're not kind of failing, you're not learning. So that stuck with me for the rest of my life. That stuck with me, and it's something that I truly do believe that if you don't keep trying, you're not gonna get it right. And I think passing that down through my teaching, because I didn't become a teacher straight away. It's not something I went into straight away. I was in the corporate world and I only started teaching in my 30s. So I think circling back to that, it's knowing that you can always go back and try again. So yeah, thank you, Mrs. Taylor. I don't know if she's still around, but Miss Taylor.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Oh, that's a wonderful sentiment to end on. Thank you both for joining us today. I hope everybody listening has enjoyed this episode of BSME Talks. Join us again soon for another conversation.