Programs
Broadcasting: From Shawnigan to the World
Broadcasting at Shawnigan has evolved in leaps and bounds over the last three years, and this is only the beginning.
Building on the success of the Chapel livestreaming program, the School has added two more aspects this year under the Broadcasting 360: a weekly newscast — Shawnigan Today — and livestreaming of hockey games.
Both projects of the Broadcasting 360 — the newscast and hockey livestreaming — are fully funded by C.A.S.E. (Communications, Arts, Sciences and Entrepreneurship), which supports innovative projects at the School through expertise, time and funding. C.A.S.E. wants students to work with industry-standard equipment, and Broadcasting Instructor Mr. Elliot Logan has been able to build his studios with top-of-the-line material.
Under Mr. Logan, Shawnigan Today operates like a proper newsroom, where students pitch stories, then decide as a team which stories to produce. They go through dry readings before the enter the studio, and after they film their segments, a student editor creates a news broadcast out of it, and the results are released every Monday on Shawnigan’s YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook accounts.
Grade 8 students are trained as journalists to be boots on the ground at the School, and delve into everything from news and sports to weather and entertainment. In the future, Mr. Logan hopes to take the students to a TV station in Victoria so they can get a feeling of what goes into a full TV news production.
Sports livestreaming is beginning with hockey broadcasts this year, and Mr. Logan hopes to expand to other sports in the future. During games, students have a range of assignments that help create a broadcast, complete with play-by-play commentary, that is aired on YouTube. The roles involved in the broadcasts apply to many different careers, and Mr. Logan is also training the students to be leaders, with the goal of making the broadcasts self-sufficient and reducing his own role.
The livestreams allow parents from around the world to watch games that they would otherwise miss out on, something Mr. Logan understands all too well, as his parents lived far away from Shawnigan when he attended, and never once got to see him play rugby for the School. He is excited to give more parents the opportunity to see their children in action.
We acknowledge with respect the Coast Salish Peoples on whose traditional lands and waterways we live, learn and play. We are grateful for the opportunity to share in this beautiful region, and we aspire to healthy and respectful relationships with those who have lived on and cared for these lands for millennia.
Shawnigan Lake School is an independent co-educational boarding school for ages 13 –18 on Canada’s beautiful West Coast. Our diverse, interdisciplinary and innovative programming helps shape the next generation of global leaders.
