Since launching in 2021, The Reading Cafe podcast has offered Holy Cross High School pupils the opportunity to record online interviews with a variety of popular writers.
These have included Robin Stevens (the Murder Most Unladylike series of novels), Mark Millar (the Civil War series of Marvel graphic novels) and Tom Oldfield (the Ultimate Football Heroes series).
For the past two years, associated primary schools have also participated in transition events involving P7 pupils interviewing the award-winning writers Aisha Bushby (A Flash of Fireflies) and Elle McNicoll (A Kind of Spark).
Having focused on lower school, we felt it was now time to give senior classes attention - especially with exams on the horizon. The next step was to record the podcast in front of a live audience of seniors in the run-up to the National 5 English exam.
Our inaugural in-person event featured an excellent (and timely) interview with Ann Marie Di Mambro, writer of a popular set text, the play Tally’s Blood.
Ann Marie took to the stage with S5 reading leaders Elsa and Grace. Our audience had pens and jotters at the ready, scribbling away as she discussed the play’s characters, themes and setting.
Eilidh, an S4 student said: “She knows the play better than anyone, so it gave us many different things to write about - particularly relationships we don’t often consider which she analysed deeper for us.” Amelia from S4 found her responses useful, too, thanks to the “extra insights and reasoning…since they could possibly be upcoming eight-mark questions for our exams”.
Podcasts’ ‘capacity for reach’
And of course, the beauty of the podcast format is its capacity for reach. Whether you had a front-row seat at Holy Cross on the night or not, it’s online now so anyone anywhere can bring it to life on headphones or speakers at the click of a button.
The intention with the podcast has always been to create an engaging, valuable resource that could be used widely, such as through our primary-transition events. Happily, other schools are also benefiting from the podcast, such as St Andrew’s and St Bride’s High School in East Kilbride.
“N5 pupils engaged really well with it, seeing the direct relevance and benefit to them,” says reading-for-pleasure lead teacher, Susan Brownlie. “We’ve made the recording available via Google Classrooms and teachers have used it in class, asking pupils to take notes as they listened along.
“Access to such a high-quality and engaging discussion is a useful addition to the range of materials available on the play.”
‘Potency and success’ of a live event
Given the theatrical context in which Tally’s Blood was born, it was clear that collaborating with the drama department was more than just a good idea - it would be vital to the potency and success of the event.
National 5 drama students Caroline and Martha, and Higher drama students, Maria and David, performed key scenes from the play in front of a live audience and - surely most dauntingly of all - in the presence of its writer. Fortunately, this also supported their preparation to perform these very scenes in their acting exams for drama the next week - an instance of genuinely practical and valuable interdisciplinary learning.
The audience identified the performance aspect of the event as a significant highlight, allowing them to “visualise the scenes” and “really understand what Ann Marie was saying, as we had just experienced it ourselves”.
Fourth-year pupil Keira felt that “the live performances contributed well to the experience as they showed how the characters would act”. Clearly, the magic of drama was at work as our talented pupils made their peers feel as if they were in the room with protagonists Massimo, Bridget and Rosinella. “I think it was effective that you could see the characters’ emotions in real life,” said Madeline in S4.
Building a ‘treasure trove’ of a back catalogue
This episode of The Reading Cafe is an invaluable resource for all pupils studying Tally’s Blood for their National 5 English exam, and it joins a treasure trove of excellent themed episodes aimed at pupils from P7-S4 and beyond, as Susan Brownlie confirms.
“I’m also sharing other episodes of the podcast with BGE pupils to introduce them to authors they might not know and so they can hear ones they do know and enjoy books by them, too,” she says.
“The back catalogue of episodes is a great (and free) resource to have and to come back to again later with future learners.”
Peter Kelly is a teacher of English at Holy Cross High School, in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire. The Reading Cafe LIVE episode with Ann Marie Di Mambro is available on Spotify, Audible, Apple Podcasts and Podbean.
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