St Mary’s Primary School in Batlow has a long standing partnership with radio station Tumut FM96.3 that allows students to report live to air on the local radio every week.

For over 15 years students from Years 4 - 6 have taken turns to report school news during a live broadcast to the communities of Batlow, Adelong and Tumut.

Sounds of the Mountain Station Manager, Dave Eisenhauer said that the station has over 20 local schools contributing to a daily broadcast, including St Mary’s Batlow, McAuley Tumut, St Joseph’s Adelong and St Patrick’s Gundagai.

“They all do a fantastic job and the kids seem to really enjoy the experience of contributing to local programming with their own radio segments,” he said.

Dave said that it is a privilege to be able to broadcast school news, which has become a main feature on the station, and he looks forward to continuing this partnership in the future.

“It’s a great opportunity for the schools to talk about what they’re doing in the community and students love to say hello to family and friends who tune in to hear them talk,” he said.

Students take their notes home to practice the night before broadcast, ready to report on the latest events, sport, family involvement, learning and fundraising activities.

“They are professional and enthusiastic, and we are proud of every single one,” said Dave.

“You never know - we may have amongst our school news reporters the next big name in the radio industry in years to come!”