Last week the Year 8 English students caught the train to the Melbourne Arts Centre to record radio plays we had written. We spent the majority of the School day recording and editing them and it was incredibly fun and new for everyone. During English class this Term we have all been studying radio plays.

It was fantastic to actually get to write, record and edit them ourselves. My favourite part of the excursion was adding the sound effects to our radio play as there were hundreds of sound effects to choose from with some of them sounding very intriguing. I also enjoyed listening to the finished radio plays as they were extremely entertaining and funny.

In the week before the excursion, we prepared our scripts in pairs or groups of three. In my class, the plays were around 400 words and were written with the fact that we would have access to many sound effects in mind.

On the day of the excursion, with scripts in hand, we made our way to the Arts Centre excited and ready for a different type of experience. We started with a tutorial from one of the staff working at the Arts Centre regarding how to use the recording and editing program. The program we used to record our voices was super easy and, with assistance from the extremely helpful staff member, the recording was a breeze. We spent the day recording, editing and adding sound effects.

At the end of the day, before we left to go back to School, we were able to listen to some of the other group’s radio plays. They were very funny and it was great to hear what other people had created.

Personally I feel proud of what we achieved today and I thoroughly enjoyed this unique opportunity.