Latest news with #McClymont
The Spinoff
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
New local ‘Gossip Girl whodunnit' takes aim at image based abuse
Alex Casey talks to Jess Todd and Liv McClymont, the creative team behind scandalous new social media series The Sender. On one of the final rounds of script feedback, millennial filmmakers Jess Todd and Liv McClymont received a crucial last minute note from their group of Gen Z advisors. 'They were like, 'it's really good, but we only really say the word suss ironically now – it's changed in the past month',' laughs McClymont. 'Things change really quickly with Gen Z. They think quickly, they act quickly, and hopefully that is reflected in the pace of the show.' The show she is referring to is The Sender, a brand new local webseries following one group of soon-to-be prefects as their private party is gatecrashed by some even more private messages. As each typical high school character – the alty girl, the jock boy, the theatre princess and the godbotherer – all find themselves at the mercy of The Sender, it soon becomes a bite-sized Gen Z mystery with lashings of what McClymont calls a 'Gossip Girl whodunnit'. The idea for the series came to the creative pair after they made local documentary I Stand For Consent, in which McClymont returned to her old high school in Ōtautahi to interrogate the state of consent education. 'While talking to all of these young people, a thing that we kept hearing was that actually a lot of harassment was now happening online, and that nobody was talking about it,' says McClymont. 'They didn't know how to talk about it either,' adds Todd. Through further research and discussion around image based abuse in Aotearoa, it soon became clear that these issues needed a wider platform. Young people want to figure things out when they're wrong, but they don't want to be spoonfed information,' says McClymont. 'We realised the best way to have a conversation about this with them was to do it in a way that was really subtle, fun and engaging that teenagers would actually want to watch.' That also meant meeting them on the platforms that they use – TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts – and writing bite-sized episodes to keep them engaged. The pair went down the rabbit hole of viral TikTok series like Alpha Wolf, and anything involving 'secret billionaire husbands' to get a better feel for the soapy, hooky shortform style. 'They are exciting in the first few seconds, and always end on a cliffhanger so that you want to watch the next one,' says Todd. Being beholden to social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram also means a new set of considerations for the content itself. Dealing with teenagers, sex, nudes, swearing and drinking meant a constant dance with potential shadow-banning. 'Kissing is OK when it is more on the PG side, but as soon as it started heading into M territory with tongue action, you could be shadow banned,' explains McClymont. 'Same with drug use and drinking.' Steered away from making an edgier show, they decided to lean into absurd humour and set-pieces, including regular cameos from an extremely laid-back Jesus Christ, and a shrieking Lost-style monster lurking outdoors. All the while, it still manages to stay extremely local. 'I'll never gonna play a nurse on Shortland Street now!' Frankie screams after receiving her own nudes. 'You smell like St Kevin's Arcade – and not in the good way,' is another standout line. 'We definitely wanted it to be specifically Kiwi, because it makes it that much funnier for our audience,' says McClymont. 'We had our cast and crew screening last night, and the things that really hit home were those really specific things.' One particularly specific insult brought the house down. ''Savemart Troll' really went off,' laughs Todd. And while there are plenty of good gags, The Sender also has a serious mission – one that is in keeping with the pair's previous work. 'We found out that they had been doing consent assemblies to all the year groups and screening our consent doco at Christchurch Boys High,' says Todd. 'And then someone involved in our stalking doco joined the police force to try and make positive change. In many ways it is those smaller moments that really make these projects feel worth it.' With one study finding 39% of people in Aotearoa have experienced image based abuse, the majority being aged 16-39, McClymont hopes The Sender can also start some tough conversations in Aotearoa. 'We recognised that this was an issue that was really affecting young people, but that the adults around them didn't really know anything about it or how to speak to it,' she says. 'So hopefully this is a way for these worlds to actually meet each other and talk about it.' Todd agrees. 'If this show encourages just one person who has experienced online based image abuse to go and seek help or report it, then that'll be a massive win for us.'
BBC News
30-04-2025
- General
- BBC News
Swedish army bridges cut costs of forestry work
Two old Swedish army bridges have helped to save tens of thousands of pounds on forestry work in southern and north-east and Land Scotland (FLS) bought them for use in Aberdeenshire and Dumfries and estimated it had saved at least £50,000 on the south of Scotland project civil engineer Elaine McClymont said they had been a "great find and a perfect solution". In Aberdeenshire, one of the bridges provided temporary access to a quarry and allowed repairs to be made to an existing bridge that had been damaged in severe bridge in southern Scotland was split into two separate bridges used to access areas of forest due for harvesting operations and McClymont said: "The design and size of the bridge meant that it could be easily split into two smaller bridges that could be put together within a day and without the need for special components."Being army design, they're rugged, robust and more than capable of dealing with forestry traffic."The bridges, now at Loch Trool and Penninghame, were installed quickly and with minimal impact on the river banks."And to cap it all, once they've served their purpose here, the bridges can easily be dismantled and moved to another location where they might be needed." FLS said the cost of a standard bridge is about £130, new bridges in the south of Scotland cost less than £80, bridge in Aberdeenshire was installed at a cost of £5,000, with a further £2,000 spent on dismantling it.
Yahoo
26-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Educators Learn Key Entrepreneurship Lessons in Launching Their Own Microschools
Giselle McClymont knew from second grade that she wanted to be a teacher. She went on to earn an education degree in college and taught in Florida's Broward County public elementary schools for six years before leaving the system in frustration in 2022. 'I just personally felt like I couldn't help each child,' said McClymont, noting that third grade testing demands and the pressure to teach to the test created frustration and stress for students and teachers alike. 'It took the joy out of teaching and learning.' McClymont became a stay-at-home mom and planned to homeschool her daughter, but she missed the classroom. In the fall of 2023, she began leading a learning pod with three children in her neighborhood. That was when she heard about microschools, or the intentionally small, low cost, often mixed-age learning communities that have gained widespread popularity in recent years. She was immediately attracted to microschooling's focus on flexibility and personalized learning, and knew for certain that she wanted to launch her own microschool. But where should she begin? Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Most microschool founders are teachers like McClymont who previously worked in conventional schools. According to a 2024 analysis by the National Microschooling Center, more than 70 percent of today's microschool operators are current or former licensed educators. These founders have deep knowledge of curriculum and pedagogy and a passion for teaching and learning, but most of them have never run a small business. They are looking for ways to bridge the gap between being an educator and an entrepreneur, and new microschool accelerator programs are helping them to do just that. 'Put me in a classroom anywhere and I can teach all day. I got that. I was looking for all those business tips and tricks,' said Tonya Kipe, founder of Kipe Academy in Polk City, Florida. A public elementary school teacher for more than a decade, Kipe grew her microschool from one student in January 2024 to 26 students today, including those with special learning needs. Participating in Launch Your Kind, a Florida-based nonprofit microschool accelerator, was a key part of Kipe Academy's growth. Related Created by former public school teacher Iman Alleyne in 2022, Launch Your Kind supports the development of new microschools — especially those that celebrate diversity, inclusivity, and joyful learning. After launching her own microschool, Kind Academy, in 2016, Alleyne wished she had an affordable, model-agnostic school accelerator program available to her to provide the business skills, entrepreneurial insights, and community support that she lacked. She wanted to streamline the startup process for new founders, enabling them to avoid common pitfalls and build sustainable small businesses. 'I teach them to take care of their teacher hat, but their business owner hat needs to come on too,' she said. The 10-week program provides online, cohort-style coaching for about a dozen new or aspiring microschool founders, and continued support thereafter. Through weekly check-ins and expert presentations, they learn the business of running a school, ranging from establishing policies and procedures and finding a suitable school location to setting tuition prices, exploring various revenue streams, and being fiscally responsible. Alleyne's goal is to help microschools flourish and grow, and she helps founders to merge their love of teaching with a keen sense of what it takes to run a successful enterprise. Most Launch Your Kind founders launch or expand their microschools within six months of participating in the program, with each cohort community remaining in close contact long after the program ends — including through an annual in-person retreat. Launch Your Kind's winter cohort begins later this month. For Kipe, participating in Launch Your Kind helped her to see that entrepreneurship can be a win-win for herself and the students she serves. 'We want to serve the community, but we're also a business,' Kipe realized. Like most of the Florida microschools that have participated in Launch Your Kind, Kipe Academy's students attend at reduced tuition rates thanks to the state's robust school choice programs that enable education dollars to follow students to their desired learning setting — including microschools and homeschooling centers. Family financial accessibility is an important priority for the microschool founders with whom Alleyne works. It's also Alleyne's priority with Launch Your Kind. 'I really wanted to put together an accelerator that would be at a price point that people could afford,' said Alleyne, who has received philanthropic support from organizations such as Stand Together Trust, Getting Smart, VELA, and the Yass Prize, which has helped to defray participant costs. After discovering microschooling in 2023 while running her learning pod, McClymont saw a post on social media by Kipe mentioning Launch Your Kind. She connected with Alleyne and joined the next accelerator cohort in 2024, growing her program, Tree Stars Learning, from three students to 13. She serves both neurodiverse and neurotypical students in her current microschool location in West Sunrise, Florida, and is in the process of opening a second location in Coral Springs. She credits the accelerator program as a primary reason for her early success and continued growth. 'To be a teacher is one thing; to be an entrepreneur and run a successful microschool is another. There were a lot of things that I didn't know, like certain legalities, marketing, and just the logistics of how to run the company,' said McClymont, adding that the connection to a small community of founders within the Launch Your Kind cohort was also invaluable. One piece of entrepreneurial input was particularly helpful. 'I was grossly undercharging myself and Iman had to have a conversation with me,' recalled McClymont. 'She told me, 'you are undercharging for what you have to offer and you need to raise your prices. Yes, you're doing this out of the goodness of your heart but you're running a business now.'' For McClymont, that type of candid feedback was exactly what she needed to take her business to the next level to serve even more students throughout South Florida. Adopting a solid business mindset was how McClymont would be able to do the most good for the most students. 'I think that's something that a lot of educators probably struggle with,' she added. McClymont has observed significant academic and social-emotional gains in her students, and plans to continue to open new microschools as parent demand grows. She is also considering the possibility of creating a franchise model to help other educators launch their own Tree Stars Learning locations without having to start from scratch. She said she thinks the microschooling movement is just beginning: 'I feel like we are the Uber of taxis: I believe that microschools are going to take over. Especially in South Florida, parents are looking for other options because they see how the public school is not serving their child. It's getting to a point where they have to close down some public schools here. Parents are seeking other options, and I just want to be a positive light.'
