Talk about initiative. When students from Mitchells Island Public School near Taree were asked to compile a one-hour radio program they decided to go beyond reading out the usual school news.

What they’d really like to do, they told teaching principal Kim Wallis, was interview local author and illustrator Stephen Michael King on-air.

Community radio station 2Bob allows district schools to present a program called School’s Out. Mrs Wallis had been through the process with other schools “but not to the success that this group has done it – it’s quite exceptional what these kids came up with”, she said.

“When writing their script, they said, ‘Oh, this is a bit boring … it’s all school stuff’,” she said.

When asked how they could make it exciting, Year 4 student Danielle J said  she’d like to conduct an interview with local author and illustrator Mr King.

“They promptly came up with a list of questions they’d like to ask him,” Mrs Wallis said.

“I told them they’d have to liaise with 2Bob and with the author. Anyway, this little girl got on the phone … booking and organising. Before I knew it, it was all on.”

As soon as the live studio interview was over, 2Bob “gave them such a big rap because it was the first time any school group had done a live interview and they handled it with aplomb,” Mrs Wallis said.

She puts a small student group through the program each term, after asking which parents are prepared to drive their children 30 minutes to the Taree station.

“The program actually puts their literacy into practise because they compose it all on the computer, drawing from newsletters, they email each other what they’ve done, they colour-code it, time it and include their music,” Mrs Wallis said.