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Children to have their voices heard

14/05/2004

"I am sure that this imaginative scheme will be hugely enjoyed by school children."

'Project V', created by YourVoices, an organisation that provides audio content for websites, came up with the idea of creating a website where young people can broadcast and listen to their own audio programmes.

The curriculum-focus for the project is citizenship with participants also greatly improving their multimedia and IT skills by using new and easy-to-use technology, such as mini-discs and digital editing software, to create their audio programmes. Literacy skills will be developed as students will be involved in all aspects of the production including researching, scriptwriting, interviewing and editing. Media literacy is also a focal element of the project.

Participating students will be from eight rural, urban and inner-city state schools in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Oxfordshire and Lincolnshire. Three are primary and five are secondary from key stages 2,3 and 4. The project has the potential to develop an audio web community in schools throughout the UK.

Each school will select eight pupils to be in the production team and they will meet with a YourVoices producer once a week for eight weeks to learn the techniques of audio recording and to understand the programme-making process, from start to finish. They will attend workshops to discuss their story ideas, its argument and narrative, what they need to research, who they need to interview, and how to question them.

Sarah Macnee, Acting Learning Director, said: "I am sure that this imaginative scheme will be hugely enjoyed by school children. We are always on the look-out for innovative projects that add real value to the school's curriculum, making learning fun, engaging and interactive!"