There was a huge buzz of excitement around the whole school (staff included!) about today’s visitor, Hugh Dennis. The children came in first thing eager to meet our celebrity guest, however one thing was different today – no food! We wanted to maintain an air of professionalism around Hugh so we didn’t really want toast crumbs about the room and we also felt that we wanted to keep distractions to a minimum.
Together, we set up the room and went through what was going to happen. The children rehearsed their questions with us hot seating as Hugh. Throughout the weeks we have seen the children become much more confident in their questioning skills and this was really evident in their practice run. J and T (two of the children) volunteered to welcome Hugh and introduce our project to him. They were a bit nervous but really proud to be doing it.
Helen was given the task of collecting Mr Dennis from reception, however due to the excitement (and Dyslexia) she persisted in calling him Hugh Laurie to everyone’s amusement. Quick changes of plan were needed, and Sophia took on the challenge. Helen and Ollie noticed a silence in the room as the children waited in anticipation of his arrival...
Hugh quietly arrived and we were all struck by how down to earth he was. And we loved him. He took his seat in the middle of our horseshoe and the interrogation began! The boys were straight in there with the questions that they had prepared and they seemed to respond well to Hugh’s answers and ask questions based on this. Hugh was really engaging and everyone in the room felt part of the discussion. We think the fact that Hugh is a comedian and on television really helped to keep the children interested and his manner with his audience was superb! This provided such an exemplary model to the children for their own radio production.
Something that struck a chord with many of the children was Hugh’s answer to J’s question about what he thinks has made his career so successful. Hugh responded by explaining that the most important thing was being yourself and not trying to imitate other people who you think are good. He went on to say that audiences can see through this if you’re not being true to yourself.
After an hour of discussion it was time for goodbye. Hugh kindly signed autographs and a group picture was taken for posterity. Having such a high profile visitor in to school provided the children with inspiration to begin to plan out their own radio broadcasts after break.
The day was a great success; however one thing marred the day. We tried to record the hour long interview for use in the final podcast. Unfortunately, something went wrong and our recording was lost. This was quite hard to deal with initially, especially breaking it to the children, but they were still really pleased with the day and dealt with it maturely.
We’re all looking forward to next week where the hard work really starts – planning and recording our radio programmes!
To view the lesson plan click here.To view the powerpoint for the lesson click here.
© Sophia Koiston, Oliver Hughes and Helen Goodall 2010
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