By Isabel Ong

TO 180 primary school students here last week, Nancy Sit was not just that veteran Hong Kong actress who often played chatty, good-hearted auntie roles on TV.

She became their teacher who led them into the exciting world of TV hosting and song recording. Sit, 58, was in town to conduct a five-day enrichment programme at Nanyang Primary and Shuqun Primary schools.

The course, priced at $200 per head, taught the children the finer points of becoming a TV host and recording artiste.

The content is a streamlined version of the curriculum of Ka-Yin Mama Performing Arts School in Hong Kong, which Sit founded in 2004. It was brought to Singapore by Harbridge EduServices. Sit also conducts courses for students in China.

Nanyang Primary School pupil Tan Rhe-Anne, 10, says: 'It was interesting and fun, especially when I got to sing for a recording and saw how the song was mixed and edited together.'

Schoolmate Wu Chih Ying, 11, shares similar sentiments: 'I learnt which words in a sentence to emphasise, when to pause and how to speak with conviction in front of a crowd.'

Shuqun Primary School built a studio in the school last year where pupils can learn broadcasting, videotaping and production of materials, says principal Gary Tsu.

'So the course provides a further opportunity for students to work with professionals to learn presentation skills,' he adds.

Nanyang Primary School's principal Heng Boey Hong agrees: 'This is a platform for our pupils to showcase their skills even as they develop new ones.'

Sit, who conducted the course with teachers from Harbridge EduServices, tells Life! she wanted to give children a chance to express themselves through music and other means, to relieve the stress they face in their studies.

'I teach them how to have good showmanship and body language so they will be more lively when they are in front of an audience,' she says.

The children also learnt how to sing a Mandarin song called Go Earth, an original composition by Harbridge EduServices' principal Million So, and a rap made up of Chinese idioms.

Indeed, parents are full of praise for the course.

Mrs K. C. Lim, 48, says of her two children who enrolled in the programme: 'On the first day, they were reluctant to attend but after that, they really looked forward to it.'

Her son Joshua Ian Lim, 12, had an opportunity to record a song with Sit.

Housewife Agnes Goh, 39, says: 'My daughter speaks Mandarin only occasionally but now, she says it's quite cool to speak Mandarin.'

There is even a grand finale to the course. Every student has a chance to go to Hong Kong in November and appear in a TVB programme called A Green Christmas, which will feature Sit and children from her schools and enrichment programmes.

Each child, who will pay about $1,000 for travel and accommodation, will host the first segment of the programme and be interviewed by actual TV hosts in the latter segment.

They will also perform Go Earth to tie in with the environmental theme of the show, as well as participate in on-location shoots in Disneyland and Ocean Park.

Sit has plans to hold a similar programme in secondary schools in Singapore next year.

'I believe that pupils, principals and parents will find this course fulfilling,' she says.

isabelo@sph.com.sg