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Master of Ceremonies at Deakin Edge
14 November 2016
'I started it off by saying my name and what we’re celebrating’, said Zak, a Grade 4 student at St Pius X School, Heidelberg West. He and his classmates
were MCing the Song Room’s Children’s Week performance at Deakin Edge in Federation Square on 25 October.
Opening the show to a packed venue, Zak admits he was ‘kinda’ nervous but he used some techniques that Lynne Kent, a teaching artist with , had taught him that ‘puts our confidence into us’ and did a great job.
The hour-long performance included five other schools and over 200 students from across Melbourne and featured stringed instruments, African drumming and pop culture dancing.
While the other schools performed music and dance, the students at St Pius X demonstrated the public speaking skills they had been developing over the past weeks. While patiently waiting their turn to introduce the next school and their act, the MCing students were re-reading their texta-written cue cards and practicing their confidence-techniques.
Lynne Kent described her involvement with St Pius X, ‘I worked with the whole school but with this particular class today I was working on transferable skills: public speaking, team building, confidence-building games which culminated in them MCing this event at Deakin Edge, Federation Square’.
‘Hopefully they’ve got a sense of pride in themselves for what they’ve achieved, a sense of confidence, and definitely transferable skills that they can put into job interview skills, or any kind of oral presentation that they have to give. And the team building skills, working together, working in this professional environment requires good listening skills as well as presenting skills, so hopefully all of that can be transferred into whatever aspect of life they take on.’
The performance was held to celebrate as ‘a time for children to demonstrate their talents, skills and abilities’.
The Song Room partners with schools and aims to give children the opportunity to participate in music and the arts to enhance their education, personal development and community involvement.