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Burnage school gets new status

Yakub Qureshi
4/ 1/2008

SMILE you're on camera. Students at a south Manchester school are getting to grips with the latest video and computing technology as part of a school revamp.

Burnage High School for Boys has been given recognition as a centre of excellence for media teaching and to mark the move has been renamed Burnage Media Arts College.

The move, which has brought a £500,000 funding bonus from the government, has bought a new suite of high-powered Apple Macs which run the latest filmmaking and music programmes.

There is a new curriculum with lessons in photography and creating their own television programmes, where they can use a broadcast quality video camera to practise filming and editing skills.

And the school will also benefit from a new performing arts area for drama lessons.

To emphasise the change, the 925-pupil school has also adopted a new school logo in a distinctive magenta colour.

Mixture

Headteacher Ian Fenn said boys would continue to learn a broad mixture of subjects but the boost meant that they could benefit from in-depth training in an exciting topic.

He said: "With the BBC coming to Salford we want to prepare our students so they can have the best possible chance for the future.

"We have a completely new curriculum which will emphasise our new specialism and we will also be making use of the Internet to link up with other schools, particularly those in other countries.

Students at the college currently benefit from work placements at a local radio station and plan to launch their own station later this year.

In order to secure government recognition as a specialist media college, supporters of the school had to show their commitment by raising £50,000 in private sponsorship.

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