Murrumbidgee

NSW Department of Education

Summary

teach.NSW travelled to the Murrumbidgee area to promote the benefits of teaching in rural and remote areas. teach.NSW interviewed Kerrie-Lea, a teacher at Coleambally Central School.

Pre-text

The video begins with an aerial shot looking down at the Murrumbidgee River accompanied by river sound, bird sounds and music. The scene changes to a library interior, where we are introduced to Kerrie-Lea. She speaks interview-style to the camera, and while she does so, a tab pops up at the bottom of the screen introducing her name and saying “Moved to Coleambally 14 years ago”. The music continues through the video.

Kerrie-Lea:

“Hi, I’m Kerrie-Lea, I’m the head teacher of English & History at Coleambally Central School.”

Scene:

As Kerrie-Lea speaks to the camera, the video changes to show various images of trees, and cuts back to her. We then see several shots of teachers and students in the ag plot at school looking at the sheep and walking through the paddocks.  We then see cutaways to a child riding a scooter up a jump in the skate park, then panning shots of trees, the local attraction wine glass water tower, we then move to an aerial shot of the Murrumbidgee River and then to a panning ground shot of the Murrumbidgee River.

Kerrie-Lea:

“For us, rural life is a whole package, it’s not just about “Oh I came here to be a teacher” that was the bonus! We have found a lifestyle, we’ve found somewhere we’re really happy to call a home, and it’s safe, it’s green, it’s friendly, there’s a river 25 minutes away from us that a lot of people go to.”

Scene:

As Kerrie-Lea continues speaking to the camera, the video changes to show photos of Kerrie-Lea and her family and their life in Coleambally. A photo of them outside their house dressed up for Halloween, the kids swimming in the river, riding go karts with cows in the background.

Kerrie-Lea:

“I can remember my parents coming down, just after we moved here to help us sort of settle in, and Dad said ‘Floss, you’ll never leave’ he said ‘you’ve found Utopia’ and I think they were right.”

Scene:

Kerrie-Lea walking down a ramp at the school, then opening her classroom door and going into the classroom. The scene goes back to the interview, and then briefly cuts to the classroom with her students entering the room before returning to Kerrie-Lea’s interview.

Kerrie-Lea:

“My goal every day is to learn something new, and what a privilege if you think about it, to be so involved in someone’s life, you know I seriously have the best job in the world.”

Scene:

Scene changes to an outdoor classroom scene of students sitting in a circle on logs reading from their books, with Kerrie-Lea sitting with them. The camera then goes to a close up of a smiling student and Kerrie-Lea reading and interacting with the group. We then see several cutaways to various students reading aloud in the outdoor classroom before cutting to a standing shot of Kerrie-Lea laughing with her students outside.

Kerrie-Lea:

“I use the outdoors to incorporate into my teaching and learning, particularly when I’m teaching the poetry of Emily Dickinson, I love to take the students out to the rose garden and get a bit involved.”

Scene:

Interview scene, and then cuts to Kerrie-Lea and her colleagues interacting with students on the playground before focusing on one male student laughing and interacting with his peers and teachers. It briefly cuts back to the interview before crossing to a classroom scene of Kerrie-Lea and her students participating in an online quiz. Cuts to images of the thank you notes that students have written on Kerrie-Lea’s classroom door, before cutting back to the interview.

Kerrie-Lea:

“The beauty of a central school is you see them as little people and then they develop into these amazing young adults that they leave here as. I found last year when my year 12 students left, that I had a student write on my classroom door “Thank you Mrs Jay, you are the reason that I want to become a teacher” and that for me was a defining moment in my career.”

Scene:

Opens on interview scene, before cutting to Kerrie-Lea walking around her classroom and answering student questions, handing back student papers, laughing and talking with students, and then several close-ups of students interacting with each other and with their laptops on their desks before cutting back to Kerrie-Lea’s interview.

Kerrie-Lea:

“Why would I want to leave? This is home, this is home for us. This has everything that we need. We’ve got the best of both worlds. I have a career that you know I’m afforded so many opportunities with, I’m teaching fantastic students, my family are happy, I’m just so glad I chose to go rural.”

Closing Scene:

Video ends with a slow vertical panning shot of the Murrumbidgee River. An outline of the state of NSW is superimposed, with a dot showing the approximate location of the Murrumbidgee area.

Text appears: ‘How far can teach.Rural take you? Find out more – www.teach.nsw.edu.au’

Video Ends:

Fade to white as NSW Department of Education logo appears with text: ‘Copyright October 2017, NSW Department of Education.’

Text: ‘Produced by Branding and Promotions, Human Resources Directorate.’

Music credit: ‘Music by Arthur Basov, courtesy of Shutterstock Inc’.