Students visit BBC Manchester

On Wednesday 25th May a small group of year 7 and year 8 students visited the BBC studios in Manchester. The purpose of the visit was to look at how the BBC uses ICT, and the visit was all the more poignant as this was to be the last ever tour of the historic studios before moving out to Media City in Salford Quays later this year.

The students began the tour with a visit to see where the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra record, followed by a tour of BBC Radio Manchester studios. We were shown how the news team use sound editing software to create an interview ready for a news bulletin and the program that the DJs use to play music (it’s like an ipod with a MASSIVE memory). Whilst there we also saw Andy Crane live on air, but sadly there was no sign of Ed the Duck!

Next up the students spent time in the interactive room where they had a chance to use blue screen filming to record their very own weather forecasts. The process was exactly the same as we use in ICT at school, albeit with very specialist software. This was followed by a chance to record a short radio play.

The final part of the tour was a visit to the studios where they record North West tonight. This was definitely the highlight of the tour and we were privileged to find Gordon Burns himself in the studio, rehearsing for the evening news! Gordon spent loads of time with the students, explaining how he does his job with the help of ICT. He even took time out to sign an autograph for Mr Watts to give to Mr Doyle! Whilst in the TV studio the students had a chance to ask loads of questions about how a TV programme is made and they even had a chance to operate the TV cameras, as well as sit in the presenter’s chair. The tour finished with a visit to the editing suite. This was like something from mission control at NASA with a range of TV monitors, mixing desks and workstations.

All in all this was a fantastic school trip where the students had the opportunity to see for themselves how exciting ICT can be in the real world.