Our Experience at the Primary School

Today, we went to the Sancton Wood primary to film our documentary.

We met the head of Year 6, who picked out five pupils from her class that all had permission from their parents to be part of our filming.
Ed, Robin, Amy, Suzannah and Emily were our "ginea pigs" as they named themselves, they were all very friendly and happy to answer our questions.
They are all between the age of 10 and 11.

We had set up the camera and microphone and were ready to film.
We asked the pupils what questions we would be asking in the interview that we were going to film, and what answers they wanted to say - to give them time to prepare.

But when we were filming, the camera battery didn't last long, and we couldn't get any more footage from it. We didn't have a digital camera with us, apart from phone cameras.
So instead, we continued to make notes on the answers the children gave us about new media.
All of them have their own computers and laptops at home, a few had mobile phones and cameras of their own.
The boys told us they like to use their mobile phones for texting, and the rest keep in touch with their friends and family, and only use them for emergencies.

Some started using computers when they were around the age of 3, and had their own at around the age of 6.

They play a maths game that quizzes them on sums, and occasionally play a game that helps them with their french vocabulary.
One game in particular that a few of them play is called "Mathletics" which they use in school and at home.
They said it was "cool and fun" and "helps us remember our sums".
Ed said that in his previous primary school, they had encouraged them to play a game called "Numbershark" which quizzed them on times tables.
A few of them had also played another game at their previous schools, which had been encouraged them to play at school and at home, called "World Maths Day" which enables the children to challenge others online with a wide range of maths questions. They all said they enjoyed playing that very much because they could play against anyone over the globe.
They said they like using the computers at school for learning, as they are not allowed to use them for games, but use them for personal use rather than to study, although they do sometimes search the internet for research.

They told us they use BBC iPlayer to catch up on shows that they have missed on CBBC, but Emily said she likes watching nature programmes and documentaries.
Recently in their geography class, they watched a documentary from BBC's Human Planet.
Amy said she has a digital camera which she uses to take general photos and films of her friends and family, she uploads them to her pc and shares them on facebook.

They all said they use skype, to talk to their friends and family and talk over their webcams. Emily said she uses her webcam to talk to her family in Australia.

There were not any Smartboards in the school, but the children had used them at previous schools and really enjoyed the experience - they all wished that Sancton Wood had the smartboards too as they are very beneficial for their learning.

They use the computers and netbooks in their ICT classes, when we went to the ICT room, there were a large number of computers with the website "Kid Zone" which had various different learning applications on it. Amy told us that they sometimes use it, but it's mainly for the younger classes such as Year 4.

We wondered if we could get them to film a video on their netbooks, but the webcams on them could only take photos.

Amy told us that her brother brings his laptop to school because he has Dyslexia and uses his laptop to help him with his writing.
Ed said that he attends a "Media Club" at school, which introduces the children to Media classes and the various basics in Media. He said that he would like to study media in secondary school.

As it was time for the children to go back to their classes, we said our goodbyes and they asked us if we could come back and talk to them again soon.
We spoke to their head of year again, explaining that we needed to come back sometime in the week to finish the filming (better equipt)
We were very grateful when she said we could come back on Thursday to complete the filming, but we would not have as much time with them as they would have to get back to their classes because they were very busy this week.

When we go back on Thursday, we will make sure we have all the questions ready that we didn't ask, the camera fully ready to film, a camera for photos and possibly ask their teacher for a quick interview too.

But we did manage to get a few photos with our phones.