Cino Aust film breaks down barriers

In a progressive piece of cultural exchange students from the top academic primary school in Shandong Province, Shouguang Century School, China, came to Paddington practice their English, meet students their own age and make films together. A document for friends, family, and their school in China of what life was like in Australia was produced.

The Chinese and Paddington Public school kids’ short films aimed to capture the experience of a school student in Australia from the perspective of the Chinese students, with each of them taking on a role as either producer, presenter or cameraman.

Educational creatives, StarTime, who use filmmaking to promote children’s curiosity and creativity, brought the children together to not only build their confidence and skills for the future, but to showcase how modern schools are sharing experiences with other students around the globe, helping them connect and understand cultures other than their own.

StarTime Founder and Director, Lindsay Moss says, “At StarTime our aim is to help nurture and inspire the creative minds that will help shape the future. These students not only need to be creative, but they also need to be empathetic towards other cultures. The beauty of filmmaking and our workshops is that they underpin the values of courage, commitment, collaboration and communication, all necessary tools for students to succeed at school and in the modern world.”

“Well, the Chinese students don’t have much chance to learn English. They can only learn English in books, so as you know the best teacher of learning is the environment. So, if they can learn English in a local place they can have a good practice,” Summer Wang from EduNeway International says. “If we can show this video back home we can suggest to their school to add this kind of class... to let the kids have this practical technology in our country and let them do more practice."

StarTime was approached by the Australian China Cultural and Professional Exchange, whose mission is to strengthen the relationship and promote cultural and collaboration opportunities between Australia and China, Moss explains.

“We were asked, 'we’ve got Chinese students who want to have an Australian educational experience, can you help us?' And we, of course, said yes. We welcome experiences like this because everyone who participates takes away something new and exciting to share. We know that all the kids will return home to share this experience with their family and the greater school community – and they’ll have a film to prove it. These kids are at an age where they’ll remember it for the rest of their lives.”

The Principal of Paddington Public School, Lisa Larkin says these educational experiences are key to raising global, open-minded students.

“The big thing that we are focusing on here in NSW, in particular at Paddington, is the idea that to be successful in the future, the children will need to be able to communicate, they have to be able to collaborate and work in a team,” she says.

“We’re also getting to understand that it’s important for us to know each other and to value each other and we can do that by actually showing