An educator with more than a quarter of a century’s experience, Kensington Public School Principal Louise Stone, has never felt the need to be anchored to the past.

“I am one of those principals that thinks beyond the traditional classroom and textbook,” Ms Stone said.

“Learning has to be engaging and fun; it has to be interesting; and it has to prepare our kids for many new futures.”

At a progressive public school in Sydney’s east, she’s certainly found her muse.

Already a school that encouraged film and the arts, Ms Stone took it to the next level in 2021 when she caught up with a former teacher and colleague Rob Kaldor who was working in the professional podcasting space.

Ms Stone had been mulling over adding podcasting to the school’s curriculum when Mr Kaldor floated the idea of teaching it at the school.

With Mr Kaldor directing traffic, it quickly became a favoured activity for Years 3 to 6 students at Kensington Public School who embraced the art of writing, reading, and creating engaging podcasts.

But that was only the start.

Earlier this year, Mr Kaldor explored an opportunity to team up with SBS to produce an ongoing student podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast and the SBS Audio App.

The idea was to create a ‘Behind the News’ style program where students could touch on issues that impacted them and their futures by engaging guests to discuss set topics.

After refining the scope of the project and tweaking their submission, Kensington Public School won a grant and became the chosen school in Australia to launch the podcast with SBS.

‘Small Voices, Big Ideas’ was born.

The series of six podcasts tackles important issues from the perspective of young learners, giving them a platform to share their thoughts, creativity, and voices with a wider audience.

The school even managed to get some heavyweight talent involved. Guests have included famed Australian author Tim Winton, Artificial Intelligence expert Toby Walsh and Federal MP for Kingsford Smith, Matt Thistlewaite.

Topics were just as weighty: from immigration to housing affordability and pondering the question of whether teachers could eventually be replaced by robots.

As Year 6 student Cody pointed out: “It’s our chance to delve into issues that affect us today and will shape our future.”

The scope of the project was such that 16 students from the school have been involved, from setting up interviews, hosting and all the background and postproduction tech to make the show.

Five episodes have been published so far with the remainder to air on Tuesday 17 December.

The school will continue its own podcasting next year, and Ms Stone looks forward to shaping potential media professionals of the future.

“It’s our job as teachers to prepare them for what is out there in the big world,” she said.

“At Kensington Public School we’re empowering young minds with big ideas – one podcast at a time.”

The Small Voices, Big Ideas podcast is available through SBS, Spotify and Apple Podcast.