Radio Fairfield, the new radio station based at Fairfield Grammar School, Bristol, has been backed by a Pounds 8,000 grant from Barclays New Futures Awards scheme. The initiative is part of Barclays community investment programme and involves students from Fairfield Grammar working with youngsters from local primaries and the Basement Studio - a media skills youth and community organisation. The aim is to raise confidence and self-esteem by giving young people in Bristol a voice in local and national issues.
In the future pupils will create professional broadcast material for local radio. And later in the year, working with the Bristol Royal Society for the Blind, the students hope to produce a talking magazine for blind and partially-sighted people.
u For further information contact Marius Frank at Fairfield Grammar School, tel: 0117 955 7407.
The recently-opened Media Education Centre in Exeter is the result of an innovative collaboration between Devon County Council and City Screen, owners of The Picture House in the city.
The centre operates from premises attached to the cinema and is staffed by the council’s education advisory service, working closely with City Screen to give students a chance to learn about film and other audio-visual arts.
Since the beginning of the summer, more than 1,000 pupils have attended specially arranged educational screenings, including Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, Nicholas Hytner’s The Crucible and Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element. There is a special programme for primary children.
The centre will run workshops including “Poetry and Film” and “Writing Scripts and Screenplays”. County council history advisers have already assisted on “Who’s Robin Hood?” which looked at how film treats history by studying a number of cinema “Robins”. The centre also plans to run in-service training courses for teachers.
uFor further information contact the Media Education Centre, Bartholomew Street West, Exeter. Tel: 01392 384858.
Tracey Warren
