Day 1 Video

FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL CAPTURED ON FILM (Hutt News - Issue Tuesday, 4 February 2003) It's a day or two before Maungaraki School opens for term 1, but a group of Year 7 and 8 students are in the library, busy with writing, computers and camera gear. They've been there since noon and are supposed to go at 3pm, but Principal, John Western, reckons he will have to do some fast-talking to get them out. That's the kind of enthusiasm that marks the school's project to record on video highlights of each new entrant's first day at school. Mr Western says it's the best thing he's been involved with in his teaching career, with a variety of positive spin-offs. The senior pupils, who drive the project, learn a host of new skills - 'story booking' the action to be caught on video; liaising with parents over arrival time and their part in the film; working with Information Technology equipment to edit, create title pages and transitions - ' junior Peter Jackson' stuff. For the new entrant it's an exciting introduction to the school and a method to make them feel welcome. And for parents, who have a permanent and individualized record of a big day in their youngster's life, it can be "real tears in their eyes stuff," Mr Western says.

"The lovely part is the bond this generates. A relationship is built between the (senior) students doing the filming and the new pupils. Even the parents get to know the 'buddy' pupils to their child because they are involved in the video planning stage."
Five films have already been completed with new entrants, who started late last year, and the first day of the 2003 school year would have been flat out for the video crews.
The three to five minutes 'movies' capture such things as mum and dad arriving with the new entrant, hanging the school bag on the child's named peg, singing Happy Birthday if that was the day the pupil turned five, reading on the mat, the first playtime, etc.
Each video is individual, with the different video crews planning various shots and sequences.
"It's an excellent learning exercise," the Principal says. "The IT skills needed are really quite high end."
To cover costs, parents pay $15 for a copy of the video or VCD (film on disc that can be played in a DVD); which also includes several 'stills' of the big day.
Several of the pupils who came in on their holiday afternoon to plan for term one told the Hutt News they really enjoyed the project and appreciated the fact their Principal gets involved. Tane Taiaroa, who said that youngsters sometimes don't get to use expensive gear in case they "break stuff", said he appreciated being trusted to use the video camera and computer editing equipment.