GOOD LISTENING FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 441, 5 December 1947, Page 7

GOOD LISTENING FOR SCHOOLCHILDREN

Programmes for 1948 Educational Broadcasts

HEN the Broadcasts to Schools Department of the NZBS prepares its material for the year, it tells its scriptwriters what is required and they compose the broadcasts which are to be in dramatic or narrative form. And, having no repertory company of its own, it goes to the Productions Studios of the NZBS.-for actors who can speak to children of all ages without talking down to them. These people, through experience in broadcasting and on the stage, can bring the historic dead to life, be grave or gay, entertaining or instructive, and they work under the direction of the Supervisor of Productions, Bernard Beeby. y Most of the script-writers are themselves teachers who do their work after consultation with teachers’ committees. For a guide as to the success or otherwise of any production, a certain number of schools in each education district give comments and criticisms, and their findings, according to the Supervisor of School Broadcasts (Jean Combs) are of considerable assistance. Noises On and Off The schools broadcasting schedule for. the year makes many demands. It may require a hippopotamus to plunge noisily into a pool, a kettle to sing a song, an Elizabethan gentleman to speak in the

robust accents of his time, or a Devonshire gaffer to enunciate. his "Thank ’ee, zur." The infants may want a chicken to.cheep his comments as he breaks out of the egg; the seniors a Fiji Islander or an Eskimo in his igloo; Ferdinand the Bull, or a train puffing out his views on life to a dignified ocean liner. And so it goes on, from straight-for-ward narration to impersonation; from shouting in a crowd scene to making the

noise of an earth-worm as he deposits his cast. Much versatility is needed in a country where the school broadcasts scheme is only five years old, compared with the BBC’s 20 or so. There is no room for "temperament" among these actors, any of whom may be a big noise in one programme and just a voice off in the next. Development of Music The programme for 1948 will start on March 8, with musical appreciation by Ernest Jenner, of Christchurch, who has conducted these sessions for the last two years. His illustrated talks which will take in the development of music from the first sound-making to the work of modern orchestras, will be broadcast on Mondays and Fridays from 1.30 p.m. to 1.45 p.m., and, as an adjunct to it, a bulletin will be issued to post-primary schools in February. The literature broadcasts will be given every Tuesday from 1.30 p.m. to 1.45 p.m. They have been written by Joan Taylor, of Wellington, for the benefit of Forms I and II, and will give, in dramatized style, extracts from the books of authors-from Chaucer to the present day. This series will run throughout the year, and the NZBS will issue a booklet for pupils, with explanatory notes, on the lives of the writers, together with lists of books for suggested "follow-up" reading. Dominion History A history of New Zealand, beginning with life before the advent of man, and describing the land, and the animal and vegetable kingdoms, will be part of the 1948 programmes. These broadcasts have been arranged by Tom Tyndall, of Wellington, in consultation with Professor C. A. Cotton (of Victoria University College), a world authority on geomorphology. Dr. R. A. Falla, of Christchurch, will deal with animal life end he will be followed by Roger Duff, also of Christchurch, whose subject will be the coming of man, the arrival of the moa-hunters, the great migration, and the Morioris of the Chatham Islands. The settlement of Canterbury will be

described by C. R. Straubel, of Wellingtqn. A description of conditions in present-day New, Zealand will end this series, which will be broadcast every Tuesday from 1.45 p.m. to 2.0 p.m, Wednesday will be infants’ and juniors’ Yay. From 1.30 to 1.40 p.m. Jean Hay, W. Trussell and Keith Newson (all of Christchurch) will present Rhythm for Juniors, followed by stories in narrative or dramatic form, On Thursdays from 1.30 p.m. to 2.0 p.m. singing lessons will be given, with the studio class conducted by T. J. Young, of Wellington. On Fridays, during the first term, a description of a journey from London to New Zealand by sea under modern ‘conditions will be broadcast for Standards III and IV, from 1.45; p.m. to 2.0 p.m. The dramatization is by Celia Manson, of Nelson. In the second term a nature study series, by John Glen, of Christchurch, will be heard from: 1.45 p.m, to 2.0 p.m., and in the third term literature session called Do You Know? with the query prefacing dramatized. stories about writers and_ their books, will be presented between 1.45 p.m. and 2.0 p.m. by Patricia Hattaway and Patricia Dennehy, of Wellington.