Rainbow Alliance?

Date: 19th June 2007

As part of the forthcoming programme Democracy: Your Vote, Your Voice, Your Future, a media4schools production team made up of students from Ogmore School in Bridgend have today been filming an interview with Councillor Cheryl Green, leader of Bridgend County Borough Council. The interview took place at the media4schools' studio within the prestigious Sony Technology Centre in Pencoed.

With the possibility of the National Assembly becoming a Rainbow Coalition, the team went with the aim of finding out how the Rainbow Alliance governing Bridgend’s Council works. Asking the questions was Craig Lambourne, Bridgend’s Youth Mayor, who found out from Councillor Green why she thinks the Rainbow Alliance has been successful in Bridgend and whether, in her opinion, it might work just as well in the Assembly.

The programme is due to be ready for an official launch in September, and Ogmore School’s interview will play an important role in the film.

media4schools would like to thank them for their hard work and commitment.

Pupils interview Entrepreneurs and Key Business Speakers

Date: 15th June 2007

Students from Mary Immaculate High School in Cardiff and Cowbridge Comprehensive in the Vale of Glamorgan interviewed some of the UK's top business leaders and speakers at the Ideal Business Show Wales, held at the Millenium Stadium on June 13 and 14. The project was sponsored by Careers Wales - Cardiff and Vale.

The pupils interviewed Henry Engelhardt (CEO of Admiral Insurance), Chris Moss (Chairman of 118118), Gerald Ratner (formerly of Ratners Jewellers), Sahar Hashemi (co-founder of Coffee Republic), Mike Southon (author of Beermat Entrepreneur) and also Leanne Crole, owner of Wales based lingerie retail business Girlie Things.
They also got to turn the tables on the man regarded by many as the best political interviewer in the business, Mr. Jon Humphrys.
The speakers faced questions on their own education experiences, their career development paths and their views on what is needed in the education system to develop students more for business.
Students involved in the interview production were able to put into practice the media-production and interview skills they'd learned previously and also got an insight into the way successful businesses are formed and how their leaders help to make them happen.

Teachers experience MovieMaking

Date: 7th June 2007

media4schools would like to congratulate teachers from five schools across Caerphilly and Bridgend, who have completed their introductory MovieMaking course.

During a busy and exciting day the teachers, who hail from Rhiw Syr Dafydd Primary, Lewis School Pengam, Blackwood Comprehensive, Oakdale Comprehensive and Pen y Fai Church in Wales Primary, were given an overview of production techniques and the chance to get hands-on experience of using mini-DV cameras and tripods. And after shooting a short documentary in Cardiff Bay, they had a go at editing their own films!

Despite the grey skies, everyone had a great day, and we at media4schools wish the teachers all the best for their future filmmaking back in school.

Well done!

Hoax Calls Awareness Campaign

Date: 1st June 2007

Hoax Calls are a major problem in the UK, so two groups of pupils from Glyn Derw High School and Llantwit Major Comprehensive School have taken part in a project to get the message out through a DVD.

The two schools visited the South Wales Emergency Control Centre and Ely Fire Station in Cardiff, South Wales, to find out more about the problem of Hoax Calls in the UK.

The young people wrote their scripts at media4schools and designed a poster and leaflet for the campaign, before setting out to the two filming locations (above) to research the subject and carry out their filming.

Pupils from both schools were very enthusiastic, and two great films were produced as a result.

The campaign is far from over, the young people are now giving presentations to other schools in South Wales as part of their hoax calls awareness campaign.

Well done to all pupils!!

Special thanks to:
South Wales Emergency Control Centre
Ely Fire Station
Careers Wales - Richard Hanscombe
media4schools - Ria Charlton and Nora Alzahid

Congratulations to Trevethin Community School on joining media4schools

Date: 17th May 2007

12 pupils from Trevethin Community School from Torfaen visited media4schools studios in Cardiff today for their two-day Movie Making course.

Two Day Course: A group of students from Trevethin Community School visited our studios today. From left to right: Tom, Kayleigh, Aaron, Brianna, Mike, Ashley, Laura, Natasha, Zoe, Joshua, Ben, Gemma , teacher Teresa, and Philippa.
media4schools Instructor Mike Roberts explains how the digital Sony camera works.
Cine World Visit: An enthusiastic group of students from Trevethin school began filming the exteriors outside Cardiff's top cinema, Cineworld.
Here we see Ashley and Joshua in action working as a team. Ashley as a camera technician, being directed by Joshua.
Meanwhile two other teams were busy filming other scenes of Cardiff.
Inside Cineworld media4schools instructor Mike Roberts helped Trevethin students Laura and Philippa to compose their shots.
Back at the studios Kayleigh and Brianna set about digitising their rushes ready for editing. This is called the post production stage.
The next stage was to add the commentary, music and special effects. Natasha discusses the script with Zoe. Our thanks to Cineworld for their great support Sony would like to congratulate Trevethin Community School and wish them all best for the future

Congratulations to Machen Primary School on joining media4schools

Date: 8th May 2007

Two Day Course:

12 Pupils attended their two day course at the media4studios learning how to use the cameras.

Cine World Visit:

They then visited the Cine World cinema in Cardiff's city centre to make a short film about the cinema and even went behind the scenes to see the projectors at work.

media4schools Awards:

Their exciting films will be entered for the Sony media4schools Awards, which will be screened at the BBC Wales studios in October 2007.

Sony would like to congratulate Machen Primary School and wish them all best in the movie making course

Democracy: Your Vote, Your Voice, Your Future

Date: May 2007

Students interview top politicians
Over the last few weeks, media4schools has had some very exciting visitors to our Cardiff studios, with representatives of Wales’ four main political parties agreeing to be interviewed for our upcoming programme on democracy and elections.

With the working title: “Democracy: Your Vote, Your Voice, Your Future”, the programme takes a look at the election process, and why it’s important to understand how each vote counts.

Reports from across South Wales
The news-style presentation will feature on-location reports from teams across South Wales, who were out on Polling Day (May 3rd) to find out about people’s attitude towards voting.

We’ll also be including an interview with Glyn Mathias from the Electoral Commission, about how elections work in Wales, and why we have them in the first place.

And to give the politicians themselves a say, we invited representatives of the Labour Party, the Welsh Conservative Party, Plaid Cymru-Party of Wales and the Welsh Liberal Democrats to visit our studio and answer questions about their policies and how these could affect young people.

Politicians – and the BBC - visit our studios Over the course of one busy morning, students from Cardiff’s 14 -19 Network Learning Pathways course interviewed Nick Bourne (Welsh Conservative Party) and Mike German (Welsh Liberal Democrats).
They also got the chance to see how the BBC conduct interviews, when Correspondent Guto Harri and his team arrived to talk to Nick Bourne: a great opportunity for the students to see how their interview techniques compared!
Gwenllian Lansdowne (Plaid Cymru-Party of Wales) paid us a visit to be interviewed by a group of students from Barry Comprehensive in the Vale of Glamorgan, and answered some tough questions posed by interviewer Grant Jones.
Jane Davidson praises media4schools And finally Jane Davidson (Labour Party) spoke to students from Hawthorn High School in Rhondda Cynon Taff, in an interview where she said; “I think the media4schools programme is a brilliant programme, and I want to see more and more young people getting the opportunities that you’ve had today.”

A brilliant opportunity
Producer Jenny Harris said: “for all the students involved, this has been a great chance to find out more about politics straight from the politicians, and to pick up some media skills at the same time. Well done to all the teams!”

STOP PRESS – MEDIA4SCHOOLS IS LOOKING FOR PRESENTERS!
To complete the programme, media4schools is looking for students to become our studio presenters, who will link the different elements together (think newsreader!). If you think you’ve got what it takes, send in a DVD copy of you speaking to camera to show us your skills (to media4schools, Unit 7, Link Trade Park, Cardiff, CF11 8TQ), or call Jenny at media4schools on 02920 702777. Closing date: Friday 1st June 2007. Please note that this opportunity is open only to secondary schools who are part of the media4schools scheme.

Pontllanfraith Comprehensive School

Date: 5th May 2007

"Budding moviemakers from Pontllanfraith Comprehensive School were recently involved in the running of an Open Day for media4schools, a TV network for students. The all day event was hosted at the Working Links Centre. at Caerphilly Business Park in Caerphilly.

Four year 10 pupils - Mark Penwarden , Megan Kennedy, Christopher Chamberlain and Eleri Collings - were invited along to act as media4creative hosts and ambassadors for Pontllanfraith School.

The day involved teachers from other schools in South Wales going along to learn all about what medi4schools is all about, through a presentation by media4creative staff, followed by a mock moviemaking demonstration where the pupils took the role of a film crew and interviewed employees from the Working Links Centre, and the Mayor of Caerphilly. Colin Voisey of media4creative expressed his delight at how organised and professional Pontllanfraith's team were on the day in their interviewing, movie 'shooting', and in their role at the Open Day.

As an added bonus for the pupils, the Mayor of Caerphilly, Councillor Elizabeth Aldworth, accepted a request from Pontllanfraith School and media4creative that the pupils visit the Caerphilly Council offices, at a date to be arranged in the future, to interview the Mayor in a more detailed way, in addition to interviewing and filming senior council workers within the Caerphilly Borough to find out more about what goes on behind the scenes at their LEA.

media4creative is a training provider for schools and communities across Wales. Now its successful 3rd year, over 40 schools are involved in the media4creative project from areas such as Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan, RCT, Caerphilly, Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil. Its sister project is media4communities have now been involved in learning about digital media.

Special thanks to 'George and Paul' of Working Links for their kind hospitality on the day."

Reference: The Pontllanfraith Comprehensive School's Newsletter / Double Edition 14/15 for December 2006 - April 2007.

Schools to Swing into Filming

Date: June 2006

* Trefforest Primary school children receiving their prize from Ben Voisey, Regional Manager Saville AV.

Budding sports reporters from four Welsh schools rubbed shoulders with some of Europe’s biggest golf names at the FIRSTPLUS Wales Seniors Open in June.

Armed with scripts and state-of-the-art video cameras, the youngsters were filming at the Vale Hotel Golf & Spa Resort to produce a two-minute news programme which will be entered into the media4schools awards.

The filming was organised by media4schools, a TV network for students, working in conjunction with Ryder Cup Wales and Golf Development Wales.
Pencoed Comprehensive School even got the chance to interview Brian Huggett, a past Ryder Cup captain and player who was recently inducted into the prestigious Welsh Sports Hall of Fame.

Other schools involved were Cowbridge Comprehensive School, Llantwit Major School and Ysgol Gyfun Llanhari.

The pupils took the role of film crews - researching, planning and scripting their reports before heading to the event to carry out their filming.

Once complete, the edited films will be entered into the Best Use of Digital Media in Golf Award, supported by Ryder Cup Wales. The award will be presented at the media4schools awards, held at the BBC studios in October, where the winning school will receive a top prize for their TV station.

The films will also be shown on Cardiff’s local television station, Capital TV.
The schoolchildren also discovered some of the benefits which Wales is already receiving as a result of the Ryder Cup coming into 2010. They also filmed primary school children who were getting into the swing of golf, thanks to a Dragon Sport golf festival.

Head teacher at Llantwit Major School, Dr Brown, said: “It’s good that the pupils got outside the classroom and learnt about sport and technology in a fun but informative way.”

Brian Davies, manager of Golf Development Wales, said: “We are charged with boosting the numbers of those playing the game and, in particular, young people and women and girls.

“This is a great way to get pupils interested in golf and hopefully they will encourage their friends to take up the sport as well. With golf now being introduced at Primary Schools via Dragon Sport, I hope more schools will get involved in this project and we can increase interest from youngsters even further to the game of golf.”

media4 is a training provider for schools and communities across Wales. Now in its successful second year, over 40 schools are involved in the media4schools project from areas such as Cardiff, the Vale of Glamorgan, RCT, Caerphilly, Bridgend and Merthyr Tydfil. Its sister project is media4communities and around seven communities have now been involved in learning about digital media.

Colin Voisey, Managing Director of media4schools, said: “media4schools aims to encourage and promote golf in schools through the use of digital media, and we are delighted to be a part of this exciting initiative.”

Please visit the 'Awards' section to find out about the 'media4schools awards 2007' and win a prize!

Schools to Swing into Filming

Budding sports reporters from four Welsh schools rubbed shoulders with some of Europe’s biggest golf names at the FIRSTPLUS Wales Seniors Open in June.

Other schools involved were Cowbridge Comprehensive School, Llantwit Major School and Ysgol Gyfun Llanhari.

The pupils took the role of film crews - researching, planning and scripting their reports before heading to the event to carry out their filming.

Head teacher at Llantwit Major School, Dr Brown, said: “It’s good that the pupils got outside the classroom and learnt about sport and technology in a fun but informative way.”

Brian Davies, manager of Golf Development Wales, said: “We are charged with boosting the numbers of those playing the game and, in particular, young people and women and girls.