Burnt Oak Junior School empowers its young digital leaders with VideoStudio

The Goal

Peter Barrett of Burnt Oak Junior School has been empowering young digital learners throughout his career as an educator. He is always seeking innovative new opportunities to empower his students with hands-on tech experience, recognizing the importance of familiarity with tech across modern careers – an ongoing effort that has earned him and his school special recognitions for excellence and innovation.

Peter has regular class time with young students who work with a variety of creative software to explore their natural tech ability, to challenge them to explore the content from lessons in a new way, and to bring groups of students together to develop creative problem solving and teamwork skills. Integrating video editing software into these computing lessons provides a unique approach to learning that will bring special value to students who are visual learners, or who have challenges tied to traditional lessons. Working with video has empowered students to develop important tech skills and has provided an opportunity for the most creative among them to share their understanding with students in lower grades.

“Children who don’t necessarily excel in traditional academics may find that they excel in editing… It’s hard to know where kids can go with computing until you give them a chance.”

The Solution

Students spend 1 hour per week working with Peter across a variety of creative software to create videos for class assignments, so the skills are always being applied to the curriculum material. Peter needed a fun, easy-to-use video editing software for his students. They work with VideoStudio over several years, learning everything from camera shots, to basic editing, to sound mixing, green screen and chroma key techniques.

Peter has helped his students learn how to use video to communicate news on current events, to explain information on topics they were learning about, and to empower the visual learners in the class to express themselves more effectively. Working with VideoStudio, Peter’s students have created green screen videos to time travel through history and transport themselves across the solar system, and completed countless more creative video projects that have brought new interest to the subjects in the curriculum.

“Working with video has shown me how capable the kids are… they work things out together. Each student finds their own way of accomplishing something, and they help each other.”

The Impact

The hands-on experience with video editing has had an impact that extends beyond the walls of Peter’s classroom. Implementing this digital curriculum at Burnt Oak Junior School has helped elevate the quality of their education, earning them an Outstanding Provider evalutation from Ofsted, and other awards including an LGfL Digital Excellence Award. Students with a special interest in video editing formed an extracurricular media crew. This talented group of students have created educational videos about their school history, and a fun Newsround programme on school events and activities at home while in lockdown.

Introducing his students to video editing with VideoStudio has brought Peter new opportunities to empower these young digital learners to get creative. He provides initial direction and ongoing support, but allows students to take ownership of their learning. The ability to be hands-off working with young students facilitates independence, and gives an opportunity for natural leaders within the classroom to step up and assist their classmates.

“VideoStudio is easy to use. A seven-year-old has no problem figuring it out. Modern students are interacting with tech at home from a young age, [they] get more tech savvy every year.”