How King David Victory Park Primary School uses its big voice
The school recently celebrated the official opening of its radio station's premises.
King David Victory Park Primary School has a new space for its internal radio station, VP Voice.
The school recently had a small inauguration ceremony for this awesome feat, and in attendance were parents, learners and the Grade 7 class who will serve as the station’s DJs.
A lot of work went into making this space possible as it took the assistance of the headmaster Kevin Lees and a dedicated team of parents, led by Shelley Meskin and Andrew Fine who are notable names in the country’s broadcasting industry.
Meskin, who had two of her children schooled at King David, said the idea for the radio station started at the beginning of last year. She approached Fine intending to put their skills together to enrich the children in a way that had not been done by other primary schools. “We pulled our skills together to help create something the Grade 7s could be proud of,” she said.
Though the station had gone on air last year, it had no designated space. So a request was put to Lees for one to be made available with the promise that they would make this endeavour fly. And fly it did as parents donated equipment and offered their expertise and resources to make this possible for the children. The space is described as a proper sound studio, making it a great environment to prepare children who might one day want to go into broadcasting.
The station’s DJs are Grade 7 learners who had a willingness to take part in its running and were all given the training needed to be able to run a show. Meskin said the soft skills learned such as speaking live, coming up with solutions and adlibbing were just some of the traits developed in this environment. The DJs will work on a rotational basis throughout the year with internal broadcasts done on Fridays.
Meskin hoped the radio station served as a portal to there being more creative spaces at the school such as for the production of a newspaper.
Fine said such initiatives were all about the children and what skills this promoted within them. “The skills they learn will be an awesome achievement.”
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King David Victory Park School’s aspirant young broadcasters
