Highland Promise
It was still dark when producer Deirdre Leitch picked me up in the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio Scotland car at seven o'clock this morning and we set off for Dornoch Academy for the first of our reporters workshops. These sessions - in up to 30 schools - are part our involvement in the festival of culture. We're training groups of eight pupils in each school and they'll attend a range of arts and music events and, we hope, provide reports for our weekly Highland Cafe programme.
Deirdre had devised an action-packed lesson plan which gave us two hours to cover everything from interview techniques, microphone handling and digital photography.
"Don't worry if you can't remember all of this," she kept assuring the pupils, "because I'll be back in the New Year to remind you."
The Dornoch pupils were so attentive and enthusiastic and when we set them loose with their digital recorders they came back with a series of hard-hitting interviews with nervous teachers.
After lunch we went to Golspie where, once again, the pupils really impressed us with their ability to absorb new information and put it to the test. One girl got so carried away with interviewing her friends that we had to send out a search party to fetch her back.
Two more schools tomorrow. If I can keep up the pace.
