Sky’s the limit for Marden Lodge pupils after television station trip

Year Five pupils from Marden Lodge School in Caterham had a rare opportunity to view life on the other side of the television screen recently when they went on a behind the scenes trip round Sky studios.

The 20 children made the trip to west London as part of their classroom project Lights, Camera, Action, snapping up the last available place on the hugely in-demand guided tour.

Highlights included a look round the studio from which Sky Sports was producing coverage of major international golfing tournaments, watching a sports report go out live, and access to the edit suite to see how television broadcasts are put together, before finally, the children were given the opportunity to make a celebrity news round-up of their own.

“Obviously anything to do with watching television is always going to go down well with children of this age, but this was genuinely awe-inspiring,” said Year 5 class teacher Rachael Nicholls.

“They were fascinated by seeing the technology that goes into making television, so they were particularly proud when they had an opportunity at assembly to show the whole school the bulletin that they had made. The Sky staff said they were very impressed by their organisation and the way they went around their tasks when they were putting it together.”

The pupils’ experience has been implemented across the curriculum, with the trip being the launch pad for several new classroom projects. “Before we went, they had already been looking at script writing, and the subject of the report they made – celebrity – has been used as a discussion topic in Citizenship classes,” Mrs Nicholls explained. “In addition, some students interested in news making are putting together a newsletter in IT class, they’ve been using celebrity images to produce Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol-inspired Pop Art, and we’re also studying the history of broadcasting.”

And just like a popular television series, there will be a sequel to the trip. “In July our Year Six class will also be taking the tour,” Mrs Nicholls added. “We can only hope it’s as successful as the first one”.