Lower Sixth students interview with Kez Margrie

Georgie and Jovie in the Lower Sixth had the opportunity and pleasure of catching up with Kez Margrie, our Guest Speaker this morning, to probe a little deeper and ask a few questions they were desperate to ask. Here's what they found out...

Kez is a Commissioning Editor for 7 - 12 year olds in the Children’s Education Department of the BBC. Her role includes meeting with worldwide and UK based independent production companies to discuss ideas that fit the channel's requirements and enabling these ideas to become commissionable. Once a programme has been commissioned, Kez will then work closely with the Production Team on shows such as ‘Our School’ to ensure the content is relevant to the production objectives. In the instance of the series ‘Our School’, it was ensuring that children felt as though they are represented on TV and that they are able to tell their stories from their perspective, which is something that Kez is hugely passionate about.

During the period of time we had the Production Team of ‘Our School’ on campus filming, Kez came and visited and was pleasantly surprised by what she found at Badminton. This was the first series of ‘Our School’ that had been filmed in a private school and because of this, there was an expectation that this season would be wildly different to the ones previously. Kez remarked that the biggest difference she noticed was how friendly and exuberant all the pupils are, and the overwhelming sense of fun and friendship within the School.

Kez is a firm supporter of the saying "You cannot be what you cannot see" which was spoken by an American civil rights activist. What this quote means for Kez is that if young people don’t see themselves represented on TV then they are less likely to 'think big' and aspire to achieve something great. Kez also firmly believes in the importance of inspiring the next generation.