Introducing the future stars of Australian media

St Margaret Mary’s Primary, Merrylands school media team, have stepped into the limelight, scripting and presenting a wrap up of Term 3 through a television news style bulletin.

The six members of the team have been covering events throughout the term for their school newsletter, however channeling their talents into a broadcast production was a new concept.

Prior to the two-hour shoot, the budding media superstars were asked to step into the role of journalist and producer; researching a topic, scripting their own interviews and sourcing interviewees.

On the day of the recording, the students got into character with the help of costumes and took direction from an onsite producer.

All of the students brought different elements to the news bulletin, with the areas of general news, entertainment, education, events and sport covered.

Budding entertainment reporter, Maddison Lang, was the first to step in front of the camera, the experience helping to boost her confidence.

"I didn't really feel that comfortable at first, but I just just remembered the main things I wanted to talk about, which was easier than remembering a script word for word", said Maddison.

Principal Kevin Mills also made a cameo appearance and was asked "hard-hitting" questions from reporter Charlize DeSouza about the introduction of the learning wheel.

The bulletin was shot in the media studio with a self-made green screen the background for the video. iMovie was used to edit the production, with overlay footage and photos, as well as green screen effects added during the post production process.

The idea for a broadcast newsletter originated from leading educator George Couros, who was a guest of Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta and showed examples of other schools adopting the video newsletter concept.

Principal Kevin Mills said the video newsletter format will be used more frequently.

"The students and teaching staff learnt so much from the process and we will be using video more in the future to highlight our learning", said Kevin.

A guideline of production techniques will soon be made available to teachers and students to create their own broadcast presentation.