What’s the objective of the centre?
“Preston Manor is helping to change the way people feel about learning”, they say on their dedicated website. We believe in collaboration and the power of communities to enable learning. We use the latest technology and thinking to support teaching and learning for schools and all communities and families (…) Our aim is to enhance the learning experience for learners of all ages both in and out of school through the effective use of digital technology.”

NewTek TriCaster, provided by Planet PC, a NewTek Specialized dealer in the UK, has proven to be extremely successful among the students.
Those who take part in the TV projects learn how to use a video camera to record and present their ideas, but they also learn voice and microphone techniques, and the editing of recorded video and special effects. It includes, of course, the use of the chromakey techniques to transform video footage.

We met Trish Madigan, a project manager at Preston Manor City Learning Centre.

Nice meeting you Trish! What’s your exact role in the City Learning Centre?
Hello! To sum it up, I’m the secondary project manager at Preston Manor City Learning Centre, which means finding and executing educational projects. Paulette Williamson does exactly the same but for primary school projects. I also work as an assistant manager, supporting Mike Savva, the manager of the centre. I also deal with the organization of a Film Festival we created a year ago.

When did it all start? What about the TV studio?
We created the City Learning Centre (CLC) in September 2002. Preston Manor City Learning Centre is a creative shared resource for local schools and adult community learning groups. The 3 main focus areas when the CLC started were radio, music and digital arts. We actually started the TV studio 2 years ago. We started to introduce video and films probably 5 years ago but we were using a home-made chromakey, a little portable one that was not very professional-like.

Where do you get the financing?
Financing comes from the government… not to mention the bits I often write for extensive funding: at the time being, we’ve just started a partnership with Shine, a charity foundation that helps disadvantaged children and young people, focusing mostly on educational projects. As they say, “education provides choices”
[The majority of Wembley’s population is first generation immigrants and the area has the highest numbers of young people not in education in the borough.].
And we’re very happy because we just received 3 years worth money for that project, in addition to the base funding.

Is this part of a school programme or do students volunteer to get trained on their free time?
With primary school, we set things more easily because we have more of a flexible timetable: we’ve got this project and we can deliver it to all the schools in Brent [Wembley region] that are interested. With secondary schools it’s more ad hoc; they’re all very different, so basically we help with the media studies in some schools whereas others would like to come and use NewTek TriCaster to enhance the work they do on one subject or another. It depends on the programs of each individual school. Sometimes it can be difficult to adapt to circumstances.

Is there some kind of selection or can anyone join in the TV studying group?
No, there’s no selection! Actually, it’s kind of hard to get the students off school to come to the Learning Centre, it’s like a trip away! In the end, unless they have specialized days at school which they can take to come down to the centre, it’s complicated.