Credit where it is due, Culcheth High School has pulled off something genuinely impressive. For the past year, students have been running a radio station broadcasting across the school every Friday morning, which is far more cheerful than another dry notice over the system and infinitely better than corridor racket pretending to be atmosphere.
The weekly show, part of Culcheth High School Radio, has now celebrated one full year on air, with music from across the decades and special guest appearances. That could have turned into a painfully worthy school add-on in the wrong hands. Instead, it seems to have actually entertained people, which in a building full of teenagers on a Friday morning is no small achievement.
Leading the station has been a Year 10 team made up of Alex Buffey, Phoebe Smith, Meredith Shepherd, and Chloe Cottrill, who have delivered a new show every week for the last 12 months. That level of consistency deserves real praise. Plenty of adults cannot manage a weekly shop without losing the plot, never mind a weekly radio programme.
A spokesperson for Culcheth High School said: "They have kept us all thoroughly entertained." Fair enough. Staff members have also appeared as guests, which is either a lovely sign of school spirit or a high-risk invitation for teachers to discover their inner breakfast host. Charming when done well, unbearable when not. Thankfully, this sounds like it has landed on the right side of that line.
The school also made the point that "The show wouldn’t be the same without our amazing school community." That does not read like empty PR fluff for once. If staff and students are all getting involved, then this is clearly more than a box-ticking exercise wheeled out for a photo and forgotten by half term.
It began broadcasting in July 2025 and will soon welcome a new team of presenters for the next academic year, as the original group heads into their final year of school. That handover matters. The real test of any good idea is whether it lasts longer than the initial burst of enthusiasm, and CHS Radio seems to have managed exactly that.
In Culcheth, people do notice when local schools produce something with a bit of flair rather than just another polished slogan. This sounds like one of those ideas that could easily have been naff, but instead turned into something warm, creative and properly communal. A school radio station lasting a year, sounding lively, and not descending into chaos - frankly, that deserves more than polite applause.