Porth County Community School rolled out the red carpet yesterday (31st March) as pupils across Rhondda Cynon Taf call a wrap on their debuts into the silver screen.
The joint venture between the Sports Council for Wales and Media4Schools has seen youngsters from six schools across the county try their hand at media production activities with a sporting focus as part of the Welsh Assembly Government’s 5x60 programme.

After six months of producing, presenting and editing, they finally got to showcase the end results to an audience of representatives from the Sports Council for Wales, Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council, Media4Schools and, of course, their fellow media debutantes at Porth County Community School.

Philip Carling, Chair of the Sports Council for Wales, explains:
“This pilot project kicked off in RCT at the beginning of the autumn term with the intention of encouraging more pupils across Wales to get involved in the 5x60 activity clubs that are being run in schools, by producing a number of short films that highlight the benefits of being physically active and taking part in a variety of sporting activities.”

Launched in October 2006 and supported by a £7.6million investment by the Welsh Assembly Government, the 5x60 programme aims to help ensure that secondary school pupils are undertaking 60 minutes of sport and physical recreation five times a week and has now been rolled out to 98% of Welsh state schools.

Cheryl McNamee-Brittain, Senior 5x60 coordinator at RCT County Borough Council, comments:
‘The videos that have been produced provide a fun and enjoyable insight into the 5x60 activities on offer to the pupils in Rhondda Cynon Taf and will hopefully act as a tool of encouragement to get more youngsters involved. As well as raising awareness of 5x60 the project has also developed the young people’s ability to work as a team along with both their communication and presentation skills.”

“We’re delighted with how this Media4Schools project has taken shape and are eager to see the final productions.”
Ex-Olympic athlete turned entrepreneur Jamie Baulch, along with local Mike Keating, the Director of Education, were in attendance to watch the short films produced by the youngsters, which included a variety of activities including girls football, kayaking, water polo, skiing and mountain biking.