Edington and Shapwick School pupils and parents starred on BBC Somerset’s breakfast show explaining about dyslexia and its effect on them.  Some pupils were pre-recorded before the show but Alison chose to talk live, a daunting experience when someone places a microphone in front of you and asks questions!

The plan was to bring the breakfast Bus on to the school site but the bus proved to be too big and so it was parked in the village.  Pupils, and staff, were interested in the technology which included transmitting a microwave signal to a geostationary satellite in space, 3,500 km away.  The signal was then sent on to a ground station in Germany where it was finally directed into the web and sent to the radio station in Taunton, a huge journey but taking less than 2 seconds.

The double decker bus was equipped with its own generators and manned by two reporters, Andrew and Liam who were able to answer all our questions and broadcast the show.  The front half of the bus was the recording/broadcast studio and the back half was a meeting room.  The bus had to be manoeuvered slightly to locate the satellite and once the signal had found the satellite it was locked ready for live broadcasting.

The equipment included wireless microphones which could be used remotely up to 100m from the bus but we thought it was too cold for that!  They also had bluetooth so they are able to use people’s mobile telephones up to 50 m away which provides quite a surprise for people walking past!

Some parents also broadcast with the aim of informing listeners about dyslexia and what could be done about it.

Our thanks go to the pupils and parents who spoke so well, from the heart, about a topic very dear to them and to Andrew and Liam for being so friendly and helpful.  We hope they enjoyed their ’bacon butties’ and cups of team which pupils ferried to them.  Hopefully we will meet them again at Bridgwater Carnival.

Click here to see the photos

Click here to visit the BBC website and listen to the show.