Dulwich Dudes Year 2: Reflections on the Journey from its Founders

By Ella Z., Olivia L., Martin D., Heloise D.

Edited by Jett Brunet

Now in its second year, the Dulwich Dudes Podcast has grown along with its founding members Ella, Olivia, Martin, and Heloise. We now have 2 separate podcasts – one in Junior School and one in Senior School – and try to publish new episodes every week of the school year.

The podcast and the wider magazine team provide students with an opportunity to learn a range of transferable skills which they can use to become more independent and lead projects that they care about. It also enables students to put into action many of our Dulwich Values, such as Confidence, Responsibility, Respect, Open-Mindedness, and Resilience. Outgoing magazine members mentor new students to ensure that the magazine continues to grow year on year.

I am proud of the founding members of our Dulwich Dudes Magazine. They have blazed a path for others to follow and truly exemplify what student leadership can do at DCB to make our great school even better.

Here are some short reflections from our founding members Olivia, Ella, Heloise, and Martin, on their journey so far as part of the Dulwich Dudes Podcast team.

Olivia

Our journey in the Junior School Dulwich Dudes Podcast has been unforgettable and amazing! We have had lots of fun and have taken on a lot of responsibility. We have also developed a lot of student leadership skills in ourselves. It has been an incredibly amazing experience.

But as time went on, we transitioned on to Senior School and we needed someone to continue the podcast and the Dulwich Dudes magazine in Junior School.

So we picked two responsible and hardworking students from Year 5, Della and Annie, who were also part of the Dulwich Dudes Magazine team and the Dulwich Tube channel in our school. After the summer holidays and the start of Year 7, Mr. Brunet asked if we were interested to still continue the Dulwich Dudes Podcast in Senior School. At first, we were all a bit unsure because of the amount of responsibility we already had to take in Senior School, and we were all trying to fit in the new routine in Senior School, but after some discussion and organisation, we decided to continue the podcast in Senior School because it would be a great opportunity to make something awesome and something we enjoy doing again. Since then, every week we interview a different teacher about a different subject.

I feel like I am very happy to still continue the Dulwich Dudes Podcast and I feel very proud of myself and the podcast team for doing so much lately this year and last year. I hope we can continue this podcast for a long time and continue to make something awesome! 

Ella

We have already made 27 episodes in Season 1 and started a new Season 2 this year so far and we have learnt a lot from it.  

We first started our podcast way back in Year 6. Our lines used to be scripted and we focused mainly on school events, and it was just the four of us talking. Our first few podcasts were quite nice, and it was edited very well by Mr. Brunet. We then gradually built our confidence and started going around the campus to interview students and teachers. Sometimes we faced challenges like people coming late or missing when we were about to record, or there were loud background noises. We learned tips and tricks to solve these problems and tried our best for these to not happen. It was a truly unforgettable experience.

This year, we started recording interviews with teachers and students more often. We plan on creating a new series in the future where we interview the head of each department in Senior School.

Looking back on our work, I feel that I have learned a lot of skills and learned to be more confident. This is the beginning of our journey this year, and I cannot wait for another meaningful year in the podcast. 

Heloise

In Year 5 is when we published our first magazine, it was really amazing, and we are still proud of that accomplishment to this day.

In Year 6 we started making podcasts. We would record our podcasts in the mornings, and we would find a time to meet online so we could write our scripts together. I really enjoyed making podcasts and also continuing the magazines in Year 6!

The transition between Year 6 to Year 7 was pretty smooth although at the beginning it was a bit challenging because of the big jump of responsibility – like going to our classes on time, and no parents reminding us since the teachers send any important news on Microsoft Teams and our parents don’t know, so we must remind ourselves – those are some differences between JS and SS. 

I hope that we can keep our podcasts throughout this academic year. 

Martin

The transition from Junior School to Senior School was really a tough time for me. There was a lot of unfinished work I had to do and also a big amount of homework I had. Also getting used to the environment was hard because we knew we were not in Junior School anymore and we were no longer the biggest kids in our year. 

We also had a podcast running and during Junior School were discussing if we should continue our podcast in Senior School. At first what scared me the most was that no one was going to care about our podcast, but later on I found out that it did not matter if someone liked it or not because the person who laughs at you might be jealous of what you have achieved so far in your life. 

Senior School has given us a great opportunity to interview more staff of the Dulwich College Beijing family. It also lets us know what the staff have gone through and why they chose DCB instead of other schools. Senior School also allows us to achieve more goals than before because of the wide variety of topics there are like Battle of the Bands and House Drama that Junior School never had. 

Overall, I am glad to have this amazing opportunity at DCB and I am thankful to have this amazing team of staff to help me achieve our goals. 

Read more about Student Agency at Dulwich College Beijing by clicking here.