Stewart Shaw, Headteacher of Dunoon School, now finds himself with a television station on his hands – and a very capable in-house production team.

DGS TV was launched today (16th January) to the entire school, the local press, For Argyll’s TV unit, Argyll and Bute Council’s Education Spokesperson, Councillor Isobel Strong and fellow Councillors Bruce Marshall and Alex McNaughton.

As the school’s population finished its lunch there was a loud countdown to the start of the first DGS TV weekly magazine programme. As the count hit zero – there it was. A stunning set of animations from Sam started in outer space with a view of earth, homing in to Google Earth, zooming down to Dunoon and – the doors of Dunoon Grammar School. The hall went silent with a sense of the cosmic significance of the achievement and many chests visibly swelled with pride – Councillors amongst them.

The presenters of the programme, Steven and Kirsty, confidently managed the show from a set that looked like a cross between a contemporary cathedral and the Starship Enterprise – a studio that certainly is not within Argyll and Bute’s education budget and cannot possibly exist in Dunoon Grammar School. It doesn’t.

This is the same technology used daily by television stations, for eample in weather forecasts. Chromakey allows presentations and interviews to take place before a green screen which, in production vanishes against a background set which is a computer generated image (CGI). These are the newest media production tools and the students at Dunoon Grammar are clearly in control of them. (Many of the photographs here have been taken against the green screen to let you see how it works and how, in some, people seem to be suspended in mid-air.)

At the moment there is a voluntary team of up to thirty students from across all the year groups in the school. There are others waiting in the wings. The plan is to move to a point where there are several distinct production teams and they take responsibility for a weekly show in rotation. Skills will be cascaded from the pioneer team whose work was showcased today to other teams as they are put together. This is first class educational practice, with skills passed on student to student.

So what was actually in the first show? There were announcements – of the biggest ever Burns Supper in the School on 23rd January, and naturally being filmed for a future show. There was live music – from singer songwriter Leanne Campbell accompanying herself on guitar. And there was more music, from Mahmoud Mahdi on the Oud – twelve-stringed and teardrop shaped, considered the most important Arab instrument.

Here we had respect for the very real specialist skills of fellow students, given pride of place in the first ever outing for DGS TV.

Talking afterwards to some of the production team and to some of the other students who had seen the show for the first time, a lot of interesting perspectives emerged.

• The technology used is causing genuine excitement among students using it and those who are queing to start.
• Three spectators, Gavin, Diana and Marie, were taken by surprise by the quality and look of what they had just seen and were impressed.
• Ben, who does the editing, has discovered he now looks a the world around him in terms of what might make a good shot or a good transition.
• Sam, who did the opening animations sequence for the show, now scans the television shows and films he watches to check out interesting techniques.
• Sean, the cameraman, sees people around him in a new way after seeing them framed in his lens.
• A technical team of around ten strong is doing the organisation, the stage management, the set ups and making decisions – the start of team work and management skills that will stand them in great stead later on.
• Jordan – the legend – seems to be adopting the role of all-round fixer

The initiative began with the arrival at Dunoon Grammar of Paul Gallanagh to the school’s Business and IT faculty. He came from St Patrick’s in Dumbarton where he had been involved in setting up the UK’s first pupil-led school television station.

In collaboration with the History faculty, a cross curricular documentary video was produced – Blasts from the Past. This saw students research major figures from Scotland’s wars of independence like Braveheart and Robert the Bruce. Then, using the time machine (these education budgets are amazingly flexible), the historical characters the students had fleshed out were beamed into a television studio to answer for themselves.

This project demonstrated to the entire school just what a powerful cross-curricular tool in-house television could be – and so DGS TV came into being today.

The station is setting out as it intends to go on – with some big scores. It got permission from Snow Patrol – yes, Snow Patrol – to use the band’s worldwide hit, Open Your Eyes, as the show’s theme music. And Dougie MacLean, the singer songwriter responsible for Caledonia, allowed the students to make their own version of the Homecoming Scotland 2009 video, using his music and setting it to images of Dunoon.

The history of the school offers some mouthwatering potential interviewees and contributors.

Former students include Sylvester McCoy (so that’s how they got the time achine for Blasts from the Past); former UK Labour Party Leader, the late John Smith from Ardrishaig; Lord George Robertson, an Ileach and former Secretary General of NATO.

Councillor Isobel Strong would love to see these opportunities spread throughout schools in Argyll and Bute but is realistic enough to know that in today’s economic circumstances this may have to wait a while.

Headteacher Stewart Shaw says: ‘Already I have witnessed pupils’ confidence grown as they have learned new skills outwith the traditional school curriculum’.

Asked if he expected to find the corridors of the school increasingly peopled by dudes in shades announcing ‘in my next show….’, Mr Shaw looked momentarily alarmed at the prospect and quickly took refuge in safety: ‘This type of learning experience reflects our commitment to embrace curriculum for excellence.’

And so say all of us.

Photographs by Rebecca Martin:

• Top shows the first DGS TV show projected onto the Dining Hall wall with its attention grabbing CGI set.
• Below left: Presenters Steven and Kirsty
• Below right: Spectators, Gavin, Dianna and Marie
• Next down left: Singer songwriter Leanne Campbell
• Next down right: Lynda Henderson from ForArgyll.com with Ben (editor) and Sam (animations)
• Down single portrait: Paul Gallanagh, DGS Business and IT Faculty
• Bottom left: Presenter Kirsty with Councillor Isobel Strong
• Bottom right: Headteacher Stewart Shaw