RADIO IN THE CLASSROOM

New Zealand Listener, Volume 21, Issue 538, 14 October 1949, Page 6

RADIO IN THE CLASSROOM

NZBS Officer Returns from Studies Abroad

LLO, sixth forms," said a voice in a BBC Schools Broadcast somé years ago, "I have been asked to speak to you because I have become celebrated through my eminence in the profession of Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Shakespeare. Eschylus wrote in school Greek; and Shakespeare is in ‘English Literature,’ which is a school subject. In French schools I am ‘English Literature. Consequently dil the sixth forms in France shudder when they hear my name." The voice, of course, was that of Bernard Shaw. An Old Master in the means of self-expression, he knew that radio was an intimate medium and used it as such, with just enough showmanship and self-dramatisation to project his personality into the classrooms. But not every Schools Broadcasting department can call on a Bernard Shaw,

and the BBC, in addition to its extensive resources, has the advantages which _ experience brings to the pioneers in sucha field. Nevertheless, Jean Combs, officer in charge of Schools Broadcasts for the NZBS, who has just returned after some months of study in England on a _ bursary awarded by the Imperial Relations Trust, was heartened to find that while the BBC maintains its commanding lead in this department of radio .work, the NZBS is developing its service to schools along the right lines. This, she told

The Listener, was due largely to the visit paid to New Zealand in 1947 by Mary Somerville, founder of the BBC Schools Broadcasts. Miss Combs attended the BBC Staff Training School as. a guest from overseas, and was also present at the National Conference on School Broadcasting (held under the auspices of the School Broadcasting Council for’ the United Kingdom), and the International Conference on Schools Broadcasting convened by Unesco in Paris. During the early part of her visit she studied the listening end of Schools Broadcasting, visiting schdols in the Home Counties with education officers. She talked with teachers and pupils in all types of schools, both rural and urban. Later she watched demonstrations given at Teachers’ Training Colleges and took part in) discussions on the broadcasts and their place in the school curricula. " "The course at the Staff Training School lasted a month," she said. "Its purpose was to give students an outHine of the organisation of the BBC end a general impression of the part played by the specialists-technical and otherwise-in producing broadcasts. In South Wales I found that Welsh was

in some places a first language, and that in all schools both English and Welsh are taught, so that the children are bilingual. That made me feel that the Maori language should be included in our broadcasts. Through the BBC Welsh children are given three ‘special programmes a week — Welsh literature, Welsh history and singing." "Produced by Francis Worsley" Back in London Jean Combs attended a course which gave background to the whole -work of the BBC. It included lectures by engineers, programme officers, producers of school broadcasts and script writers. Francis Worsley, known to New Zealanders through his long connection with ITMA, discussed the production of light programmes. At the end of this course the students themselves produced a light dramatic show, A Modern Fairy Tale. The producer was John Lawton (brother of the film

star Frank Lawton), and Miss Combs was assistant producer. At the BBC Miss Combs met several of the leading figures in schools broadcast work. "It was especially helpful to be able to discuss problems with Rhoda Power, the, well-known writer of children’s stories and history," she said. "She was in Schools Broadcasting from the inception, and she was pleased to hear that a lot®of her work is used in New Zealand. Another interesting person was Jean Sutcliffe, who does stories for juniors. I had a talk

with her ‘about New Zealand dramatic programmes-I had taken some of ours with me-and her criticism was most encouraging. In fact, I think the BBC will use three of them." "Are BBC Schools Broadcasts -recorded?" "No; all are actuality broadcasts and recordings are made only for transcription." Miss Combs’s next visit outside London was to schools in North Wales. "At one school," she said, " the headmaster had told the ~children that they would seé a woman visitor from New Zealand in the afternoon. The seven-year-olds had asked in chorus, ‘Will she wear a mat?" When I showed myself several of them pointed to a poster on the wall, depicting two Maori girls in a typical greeting. That was, apparently, their sole impression of New Zealanders. But they sang to me in Welsh and I replied with the ‘Canoe. Song,’ in Maori." Exchange of School Programmes The Unesco conference in Paris. was attended by representatives of America, Great Britain, New . Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, India, Belgium and

France. One of the delegates was Arne Okkenhaug (Schools Broadcasting officer in Nerway), who visited New Zealand in 1947, and another was Mrs, Corey, of Pittsburgh, with whom the NZBS Broadcasts to Schools Department has exchanged schools scripts. ‘One thing they asked me there was how to start a schools broadcast system from scratch. Trinidad, for instance, is anxious to open its own schools department, so I was invited to advise a Trinidad officer who was studying at London University." "Did the representatives at the Paris conference know much about New Zealand and its people?" "I found that New Zealand had made far more exchanges of schools programmes with other countries than anyone else; but also that it was better for us to send the written material and incidental music, so that they could make up their own programmes. "Curiously enough I got the impression that New Zealand children and New Zealanders generally know far more about England and the countries of the British Commonwealth than English children know of the Commonwealth. In its broadcast lessons Britain uses a lot ‘of its own history and tradition, but I feel that it is more important to know about the present than matter of early historical interest. #It’s not much use knowing all about Boadicea and nothing of the Treaty of Versailles. "All the same I think it would be of the, greatest assistance to New Zealand if script writers experienced in dramatic presentation in radio could visit us for a few months. A suggestion along these lines has been made to the Head ‘of BBC Schools Broadcasting. An exchange of s¢hool programmes has been started with the Dominions and I hope it will be extended. As there are great differences in production resources it has been suggested to the BBC that material should be sent from the Dominions and that the programmes should be recorded by the Schools Broadcasting Department. This arrangement has been found

best in exchanges between this country and Norway and Denmark." . For the last two years, Alec Rowley, well-known English composer, has compiled the booklet of songs used in the New Zealand Thursday schools broadcasts by the studio class, and Miss Combs made a point ‘of seeing him as early as possible to tell him how much they were appreciated by teachers and children..She gave him a photograph of a small rural school singing one of his songs. On the return trip she’ spent a week in Suva, where schools broadcast recordings from New Zealand had been sent as an experiment. She was told that children in the outlying islands knew nothing of. trains, trams, buses and shops

as New Zealanders know them, so the NZBS will probably send material explaining all these everyday things. . Jean Combs is more than ever convinced that Schools Broadcasts| have the merit of bringing children into a creative partnership, and that they are a valuable extension ‘of a child’s experience. "When children hear a voice from outside, they are no longer in the classroom, but companions of a guide who allows them to loo at things through his or her eyes. Ih short, the broadcasts break down the classroom walls and bring the child into closer relation with what is going on outside."