ACTF News

Heidi Arena (Mrs Gonsha) from Little Lunch has judged Parkfield Primary School in Western Australia as this year’s winners of the Little Lunch App Competition. The entry by Year 5 students John, Imogen, Erin and Tom earned high praise from Heidi: “It had such a great story arc combined with beautifully layered story-telling. There was a wonderful message and the acting was top notch. I’m looking forward to seeing them all on set one day!”

Heidi Arena (Mrs Gonsha) in Little Lunch

Teacher Leah McGill felt the competition inspired her students to be totally engaged: “The fact that topic they chose was relevant to them and that they had an authentic broader audience to publish for really made it meaningful. They didn’t feel like they were ‘learning’ as the context was so much fun for them.”

Leah approached the filmmaking as an integrated unit, incorporating learning outcomes from English, Media Arts, Drama, ICT capability, Critical and Creative Thinking, and Personal and Social Capability. Her students worked on the project during hour-long sessions over six weeks. Leah was impressed by the students’ collaboration, creative thinking, and ability to apply their learning in other areas, such as pointing out the purpose of different camera angles when viewing a science documentary.

Parkfield PS' winning entry

Coming in closely behind Parkfield Primary School were Ingle Farm East Primary School from South Australia in 2^nd and Kingsford Smith School from the ACT in 3^rd place. Heidi also awarded students from Wooloowin State School in Queensland with a special mention for their creative entry.

Peter Maggs (ACTF head of Education) commented on the high-quality of entries in this year’s competition. “We could really see the thought put into each story, as well innovative use of camera angles and the different Little Lunch App functions such as pause and voice-overs. We could clearly see schools had learnt from last year’s entries.” The ACTF Education would like to thank all of the students and teachers who made the 2017 Little Lunch App Competition such a great success.

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