The KWN Story
Teachers receive brochures in the post every day, but the one that Jonathan O’Neil opened in 2006 would transform the lives of dozens of students at a small North Island school.
It was Panasonic’s invitation for Ngatea Primary to join other New Zealand schools to enter the KWN (Kid Witness News) programme and produce a short documentary. “I’d been wanting to set up video production at the school and with KWN providing camera equipment to make the documentaries, it was just the way to achieve that,” explains Jonathan.
While children enjoy interacting with TVs and computer screens, when you put them behind a camera, they have the opportunity to grow. That’s the thinking behind Panasonic’s KWN program which came to New Zealand in 2005. Launched in the USA in 1989 by Panasonic, KWN is a global education initiative designed to encourage creativity and teamwork among school children through video production. Quite simply, it’s about kids making the news.
Ngatea’s first entry into the 2006 contest was called ‘Polluted Piako’ and looked at the levels of pollution in their local river. It won the New Zealand competition, taking the thrilled team (including parents and teacher) to Malaysia for the Asia Pacific Regional finals. “We made it to the top two in Asia Pacific and were flown to New York to receive the International Award against winners from six continents,” Jonathan continues. “Everyone at school got fired up for KWN and wanted to get involved. The free equipment to make the video really set us up and kicked it along in the school.”
“In the four years that New Zealand’s been competing in KWN we’ve had four winners including Avondale, Kauri Park and Ngatea School,” says Panasonic Marketing Manager Chris Key. In 2008 over 8,000 children from 617 schools in 25 countries and regions participated in KWN. As you read this, 2009 entries are underway at schools across six continents. Tokyo hosts the six finalist teams for the Award ceremony in July. A small school in Ngatea has KWN in their sights.