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Episode 8: Behind the scenes at PNTV

28 July 2026

At Prospect North Primary School the students are telling their own stories via PNTV (Prospect North TV) videos and podcasts. Hear how it all began, why it’s got the whole school community excited, and how students come up with their own story ideas to share with everyone. Staff members Judy and Sam share how making media boosts student confidence and connects their learning with real life. Students Darcy and Alistair talk about their favourite moments, and who’s on their interview ‘wish list’. If you’re interested in starting something similar, you’ll pick up some simple tips and see how fun and rewarding student-led media can be.

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Show Notes

Featured in this episode: Prospect North Primary School – website and YouTube channel

A few of the school’s favourite episodes:

Take a listen to these other schools with their own broadcast channels:

If you’d like to add your school’s podcast or TV channel to our list, email education.teachpodcast@sa.gov.au.

Transcript

Dale Atkinson: Hello and welcome to the Teach, a podcast about teaching and learning in South Australia. My name is Dale Atkinson from South Australia's Department for Education. Today's pretty exciting actually, 'cause I'm gonna learn some stuff from Prospect North Primary School, who have been podcasting and producing television episodes for longer than we've been producing Teach. We're joined by Judy Beal, the Deputy Principal, Sam Leverenz, the Digital Media Officer. We've got Alistair and Darcy, students. First question, what is this thing? Why are you doing this?

Sam Leverenz: Yeah, so we started in 2020. I actually did a season in the US running a digital media program and I came back to Adelaide and had every intention of going back to the States, and then I had a conversation from Marg Clarke about running a radio station at Prospect North Primary School. And I said to her, "What about this media program that I've run in the States? Would this be something you're interested in?" And I guess long story short, she liked the concept, and that was sort of the initial foundings of what PNTV would be, which was essentially just a weekly episode giving all of the updates for what's happening around the school to parents and staff alike.

Dale Atkinson: When you bring a new idea to any school sometimes there's a little bit of reluctance, there's, leaders tend to kind of worry a little bit about what it's gonna mean in terms of resourcing and effort, and other teachers take a bit of convincing. How did you go about that?

Sam Leverenz: Having a new concept like this when schools are obviously so structured it… I'm not gonna lie, it was definitely difficult because obviously not being part of the curriculum, brand new, pulling kids out of class was obviously gonna be difficult. We also had, I really wanted to publish it on YouTube, which posed its own issues, being a public platform. We did have our parameters in place, such as only using first names and, you know, making sure that kids without media permissions wouldn't be featured. There's a lot of, you know, behind-the-scenes stuff that Judy and Russell and myself go behind making sure that the students are protected. But yeah, it was difficult, but I guess over time, once the parents sort of saw the end result, it ended up being quite a success. And we actually went from maybe parents being a bit sceptical to the other way, where they were saying, "Look, why isn't my child featured more?" So it actually yeah, it went around in circles to, to the other way, which was quite interesting.

Dale Atkinson: Got an absolute buy-in from the community.

Sam Leverenz: Yeah.

Dale Atkinson: Judy, how are you linking this off with the curriculum? What are you doing to make sure that this is a really rich learning experience for these young people?

Judy Beal: Our site learning plan does include amplification of oracy and how oral language fits into curriculum, not only in the English curriculum but in multi-language curriculum. We have Spanish as a second language. We also have a strong Aboriginal population, and the importance of story, the importance of telling story, and the oral history of our school in line with that Aboriginal thinking about story and how the stories of history are actually gonna change the future. We want our students to be confident in being able to connect with community and being able to tell their own story, and being able to gather story to inform their own practice. So part of the richness of our episodes is the podcasting that sits alongside the TV, and that's often the stories of people that kids are interested in – a graphic designer, a space astronaut - you name it, the kids wanna find out more, so they go to experts and bring the experts to them, and then share that knowledge across community.

Dale Atkinson: Does it take a bit of effort to map it back at the different year levels across the curriculum? What's that look like for you?

Judy Beal: Not at all. From our early years children right at four and five, they are on camera and on screen telling the story of their transition to school, and what they like about school, and how much they love their mum and what they've learnt in phonics this week, and they're telling those stories of their own learning right from the get-go. So by the time our kids get to grade five and six, they're usually the most confident kids I've seen and I've worked in a lot of schools.

Dale Atkinson: That's exciting. So, Alistair and Darcy, can I ask what year level are you guys in?

Alistair: We're both year six.

Dale Atkinson: Year six. So have you been on the journey of this from year two and three? Have you been involved in, in various different forms?

Alistair: Oh, I can remember being on PNTV in year two

Dale Atkinson: What about you, Darcy?

Darcy: I was on PNTV in year… in reception for like, the opening video.

Dale Atkinson: That's amazing. So is it really something that's exciting for all the students to be involved in? Is it something that you guys really look forward to?

Darcy: Yeah.

Dale Atkinson: Yeah? How, how do you go about, like, what input do you have in terms of choosing what the topics are, choosing what, what you explore, and who you invite in?

Darcy: Well, we actually have a planning team that goes around. I think they're in year three/four that team. On Tuesdays they go around to every class in the school, and they ask, like, "Do you have anything that you want to put on PNTV this week?"

Dale Atkinson: And what, and is that something that, like, lots of classes look forward to?

Darcy: Yes, but sometimes we don't have stuff to put on PNTV.

Dale Atkinson: How do you come up with the ideas? Like, is it something that like a group of kids will talk about? Is it something that you are thinking about from, from the classes that are going on and other things that, that makes you want to present something as an idea?

Alistair: Yeah, like our school sometimes has big events, and those are always on PNTV.

Judy Beal: I think sometimes the events are chosen by the classroom teachers based on the learning that's happening. But I think the stronger snippets are the ones that students have actually chosen, where they've actually wanted to share, where they've got their own investigational project that they want to share and they want to document that story. That's a much stronger piece of evidence for us in the success of our programs. When the teachers choose, it is very often curriculum-driven and does give families an input into what's happening in our classrooms, but I think the individual investigations and project work that our kids do, and then evidencing that, I think is a really strong piece of work.

Dale Atkinson: Yeah. That sounds so rich and kind of engaging for the the kids. Alistair and Darcy, have you had some favourite episodes and favourite guests that you've had on?

Darcy: Well, actually in year one, me and my friend did this, like singing video on PNTV. We were singing "A Million Dreams," I think that's what it was. And yeah, I can remember that from a long time ago.

Dale Atkinson: Yeah. What about you, Alistair?

Alistair: Earlier this year our entire class did podcasts for our investigation, and me and my friends all did one, and it wasn't too good, but it was really fun to do.

Dale Atkinson: I'm sure it was excellent. I might throw to Sam on that. Tell us a little bit about, you know, how you support the kids in, kind of developing and producing some of these shows.

Sam Leverenz: Well, obviously a lot of encouragement. I think everybody should have the opportunity to come in the studio and record a podcast. And to what Alistair said, I mean, there is, I think for the first timers, a bit of a lack of confidence getting behind a microphone, and those nerves obviously kick in. I think what he did was absolutely fantastic. The teacher gave them a task where they were to go in groups of fours and just speak about their topic. But I don't think they realise how much they're learning at the time, and that's, I think, what I love most about podcasting, is that they're building those skills, the self-confidence, speaking, public speaking, and all of those without even realising it whilst, you know having a good time.

And one thing about PNTV is obviously we have a lot of public content, but we have a lot of content that's actually on private as well. So all those podcasts you can't actually see on the channel. They go towards the teacher and then onto the parent. So the parents get to obviously hear, in this case, you know, in real time what their students, what their kids have done for that day, which I think is really cool.

Dale Atkinson: That's incredibly cool.

Judy Beal: The occasional times when we do content on the fly are sometimes my favourite. We have this gorgeous kid who has fantastic shoes that his parent painted in our school colours and with our school logo on them. So, I was rocking past the studio one day with Sammy, and I said, "Check out these kicks" and then there was a snippet for that child and his family about his awesome kicks, and it was so good.

Dale Atkinson: I mean, that's part of building community, isn't it, really? How do you measure the impact of the work you're doing in this space?

Judy Beal: I've just spent two days at a thought leadership gathering in Melbourne trying to work that out. Because measuring what we value, we know that we value this, and we know that we can see the change that it makes for our students and the impact it has in our community, particularly from the number of hits on the episode each week. But it's more seeing the confidence of our students to put their hand up for anything and everything. That's… if I could measure that, and probably will, that engagement level is through the roof. When I go to a class and I say, "Who would like to…?" I actually have just about every hand. It's about “Can I get someone to…?” And it's not just the podcasting and the PNTV, it's, "We've got some New Zealand principals coming for a visit. Who would like to?" And I almost get every hand in the classroom, and I don't think that's consistent across the state. I think it's a pretty special place to work in that capacity, and that engagement level was part of what we wanted in the school. But so too is the outcome of being confident to speak up when you need to talk about how you need to learn, who you want to learn with.

Dale Atkinson: Yeah. That's so good. Let's throw it to you, Darcy and Alistair. What do you love about doing this?

Alistair: I love that everyone gets together and enjoys themselves and learn so much about talking and speaking.

Dale Atkinson: And how are you, back to Sam and Judy… how are you using this specifically to engage with parents and people outside of the student cohort?

Judy Beal: It depends on who's coming in or who's going out. When we've got people coming in, those experts are often top of their field or ahead of their game, or even local connections. So when we were doing a graphic design for our school mascot, we actually got the graphic designer in after the product was finished, talked to him not only about the process, but about his career and how he got to where he is. And I think for our kids, it's you can't be what you don't see. So, giving them opportunity to meet people in such a variety of platforms… and fields…

Sam Leverenz: Yeah, showing different career paths. And I think we definitely tend to see some different roles from guests that we come in that the students may not know about, like Judy said, with the graphic designer. But just showing them that there are other opportunities. And I don't necessarily think that maybe Darcy or Alistair might pursue a career in media, but that doesn't matter. What they're learning is a byproduct so that when they do get to the point where they're going for a job interview, they'll have that confidence to present themselves. So, I don't think we're necessarily trying to create media students by the end of this, but the skills they're having will apply to everyday life.

Judy Beal: I also think they see a lot of media personnel, have been into the studio to be interviewed, so there's that reciprocal relationship. Nova came out last year, we have Channel 7, we went for a visit to Channel 9 and visited their studios and had those conversations with them. So they've seen lots of media career paths. But we also have a fairly intimate relationship with BTN [Behind the News], who come to us for their stories quite often. But by rights, we also took a whole class to go and visit them, and so they've interviewed a lot of the BTN presenters. Even the Primary [Schools] Music Festival staff, they interviewed them so that they could understand what all of the different roles are in a whole range of different opportunities.

Dale Atkinson: Yeah, such a rich learning experience. Is there something that really stands out for you as a memory, Sam, over the journey?

Sam Leverenz: For me personally, when we do the language segments – so we'll pick out a student who, you know, English isn't their first language – I absolutely love it. It gives me goosebumps when we have a student that's done research with their parents, 'cause they may not necessarily speak their first language that well, and they'll go home and research it, and then we'll put together a minute-and-a-half segment on where they're from, their background, their cuisine, one of their favourite landmarks, and just to see how proud they are speaking about it, is by far the most enjoyable thing about my job. And it's by far the most time-consuming piece to produce, and Judy knows…when we're doing a language piece...  just maybe write a day and a half off in the studio because we have to do the subtitles in English so that we make sure that all of our viewers and listeners can understand it. But we just did a recent one with a student where she actually took a camera home and then filmed her mum cooking up a traditional dish and added that in. So, we're just sort of building on that…

Judy Beal: And also took the camera to a festival that the family attended. And to have the resources now, and this is where I've seen the growth of the program, to have the resources to be able to equip the kids to be the capturer of the content and now beginning the editing of the content, 'cause that had been Sammy's domain, but he's now teaching that onto our kids, who are then teaching each other. And that trajectory has been one of the most exciting things over the last two years for me, moving from just a language segment to a create-it-yourself, do-it-yourself, and then come back at the editing stage and make the decisions around how it's being put together.

Dale Atkinson: It's getting stronger and stronger.

Sam Leverenz: Yeah. And this particular student said to me, you know, "Oh, this is how we should do it," and I love when they actually start to drive it. So obviously, initially, I have the framework in place, but then when they actually start to take over, I think I'm not even needed here, and I think that's a good thing.

Dale Atkinson: So, Sam some people might be looking at this and thinking, "Oh, we need so much equipment, and it's gonna take investment to get it off the ground." For those schools that might be wanting to do it but not sure how to do it what advice do you have for them?

Sam Leverenz: Well, firstly, I encourage any school to contact me at any point if they would like to set something up like this. But also, you just don't need a lot of money to get this started. You can get this off the ground with a minimal investment. So, I encourage schools to do this. There are gonna be some roadblocks at the start, but as you go, you'll build and grow on this and the students will thank you for it.

Dale Atkinson: And if you wanna see what the outcome of the effort looks like, we've got some links off to the PNTV episodes and podcasts in the show notes, and also from some other schools who are producing podcasts and TV shows.

All right. Now occasionally… we're moderately influential here at Teach. Some people listen, so there's an opportunity to use this as a platform to put in your bid for the guests that you would love to see, love to have on. So Darcy, you first. Who would you love to have on the show?

Darcy: A singer… Sabrina Carpenter.

Dale Atkinson: Okay. How are we gonna build up the momentum to get Sabrina Carpenter onto the show? What are you thinking?

Darcy: I don't know. I feel like it's gonna take ages.

Dale Atkinson: Okay. Well, if any of the listeners out there have got any thoughts or connections with the Hollywood and the music industries, please let us know. Alistair, what about you mate? Who would you like to get on?

Alistair: I was really, really hoping that we might be able to get Catherine Bennell-Pegg on, because she's such an influential Australian.

Dale Atkinson: Do you know, I met Katherine Bennell-Pegg a couple of weeks ago, and with a bit of luck, we might be able to find a way to get a message out to her. So we'll see what we can do.

Alistair: Yep.

Judy Beal: Isn't there a sports star you'd rather have?

Dale Atkinson: Ooh.

Alistair: Oh, I was hoping to get [Nestory] Irankunda on, because... he's really, really good at soccer.

Dale Atkinson: He's amazing at soccer, and he's one of our public education products. A good lad from the northern suburbs, not too far away from Prospect North. So yeah. Well, let's see what we can do, see how we can get some messages out there. I think those are… It always pays to be ambitious.

Sam Leverenz: But we would like to get you on as well, Dale, so please feel free to come visit us whenever.

Dale Atkinson: I would love that. Yeah, I would love that. Thank you.

Thanks very much for coming in, guys. It's been such a great experience. Judy, Sam, Alistair, Darcy, thank you.

Sam Leverenz, Judy Beal, Alistair, Darcy: Thank you.


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