Ben Butcher: The music teacher helping special needs kids to get their Radio On

Ben Butcher with Snoop Dog at Warringa Park School

It’s not every day a global music superstar comes to Melbourne’s western suburbs.

But that’s exactly what happened last year, when rap icon Snoop Dog rocked up to Warringa Park School in Werribee, to collaborate with special needs students on a new, original song they’d been working on.

It was all part of the Radio On program, which started in 2014, when Ben Butcher was working as a classroom teacher at Warringa Park.

Ben thought writing songs might be a handy way for his students to remember the things they were learning about.

Ben works with year 11 and 12 students – kids who are getting ready to leave the school system. The goal is to promote as much independence as possible.

As Ben tells Radio Today, “It all started with an aim to record these little songs about how to behave in public, how to travel on public transport or how to handle being in the kitchen.”

But as the years progressed, the songs became less of a teaching device and more of a way to help students express themselves.

The students themselves became the drivers of the songs.

Ben eventually became a full-time music teacher. Now, every year, his students record their own original songs.

“Over the years we’ve had interactions with people in the wider music industry,” he says.

Last year, the students compiled a wish list of artists with whom they’d love to collaborate and pinned it up on the classroom wall.

Snoop Dog was on that list.

The school reached out to him via Instagram.

“We realised he was coming out for the AFL Grand Final,” says Ben.

“We already had a track bubbling away. We sent out a video of the students asking for Snoop to come.”

When staff got the call that Snoop Dog was going to make an appearance, the whole school was in joyous disbelief.

He joined the class to record a verse in the song Drip:

“I’m after school with the kids, we do it after dark, educated, graduated from Warringa Park,” Snoop rapped.

“He was really fantastic,” says Ben. “He came and did exactly what we asked him to do.”

Ben then laughs as he adds “I assumed that we’d probably get some lower-level musicians in before hitting the Snoop level.”

Snoop spoke to each and every student, with Principal Ashwini Sharma saying that his visit left a lasting impact on the entire school community.

A few months after his visit, a special delivery arrived at the school. Snoop Dog had gifted the class new microphones, stands and speakers, enabling them to record better quality music and giving more students the opportunity to join in.

As if that wasn’t enough, Snoop also surprised the students with a personalised remix of the song they created together.

And the interactions with high-profile artists continue. Just this week, the students were given free tickets to see UK rapper Dave, after they asked him to collaborate on a track with them.

At the end of each year, the class recordings are made into an album to sell at the school’s fete.

The albums are also sent out to radio stations. Ben says it’s a great way to show students how the industry works, how competitive it is – and how important it is to make connections.

“We always do a little promo tour where we jump in the van and visit community radio stations.”

Visiting commercial radio stations can be a bit of a mixed bag.

“Some are quite supportive,” says Ben. “There have been people at Triple M who were fantastic. We’ve toured Triple M a couple of times.”

He says that hasn’t always been the case in the commercial radio sector.

“However, when we go to PBS, Triple R, 3ZZZ or 3CR, we are very much welcomed in. We get the whole tour. Occasionally we’re thrown straight on the microphone with whoever’s on air at that moment.”

Many of the students Ben teaches have very high support needs.

“For a lot of them, a learning goal might just be to vocalise something,” he says.

Radio On’s latest track is called Time To Relax.

It’s the first piece of music from Radio On’s forthcoming ‘chill out’ album called In The Calm, We See Ourselves.

Time To Relax was made by students from class C05 at the Cayleys Road Campus at Warringa Park School.

They played instruments and used their voices to record sounds that made them happy and relaxed.

“For these students – who struggle to even use their voice, and who are often ignored and not seen by society – it’s a real way to celebrate them,” says Ben.

“It’s music everyone can hopefully just engage with on a relaxing level. But also the students can hear themselves and say ‘Oh yeah. That’s me. And I sound awesome!’”

Images supplied.