BBC School Report marked its tenth anniversary this week.
The initiative from BBC News helps 11 to 16-year-old students develop their journalistic skills.
I joined a group of wannabe hacks at Queens Park High School, Chester, to brainstorm ideas for print- and video-journalism reports.
Check out some of the work from the day here.
More about BBC School Report.
What did you think of this story? Post your comments below.
Liked this? Try also Media literacy at Horns Mill primary School, Helsby.
Just time to fit in another workshop for schools before Christmas.
It was, in fact, a return trip to Overleigh St Marys Primary School in Chester to run another media writing workshop for Key Stage 2 (KS2).
The focus this year was news (factual writing) vs. blogs (persuasive writing) and we based our stories around a space theme with the hook of Major Time Peake blasting off to the International Space Station (ISS) on December 15.
Amongst the topics we discussed:
By the end of the morning we had a Newsround-style opportunity to read out our stories with the final versions to go live on the school website shortly — check back for details.
What did you think of this story? Post your comments below.
Liked this? Try also BBC School report Day at Horns Mill Primary School.
I went back to school last week.
Well, sort of. Last Thursday marked BBC School Report Day, the day designed by BBC Learning to help schoolchildren make their own news reports.
The project is aimed mainly at secondary schools but I joined a colleague at Horn’s Mill Primary School in Helsby to run a news-writing and media-literacy workshop for year six pupils [pictured above].
The day-long project took a cross-curriculum approach and was based around the class’ set text, King Kong.
The class worked in pairs to research, structure and write a series of news reports about New York City.
After the morning editorial conference, we draw up a news list [pictured below].
Here are some of things we talked about:
Here are a selection of the comments from the learners on the day:
* Do you have any tips for leading KS2 workshops? Share your views below.
Liked this? Try also A media-writing workshop for Overleigh St Marys Primary School
Gazetteer
Why chose to study arts and humanities subjects?
That was the theme of a careers talk I led this week for Wirral Grammar School for Girls.
The groups of teenagers aged 14-16 are currently considering what subjects to study at A Level.
The majority opt for maths and science but, over three sessions, I looked at why an arts strand of study is equally important.
I also quoted the recent article from The Independent, whereby the comedian Josie Long took Education Secretary Nicky Morgan to task for her “immense, ingrained snobbery” about the arts.
Arts Emergency, the organisation Long has co-founded to get young people into arts subjects, states the arts are important because:
“Without the capacity to think beyond repetition there is no beyond to crisis.”
I went on to talk about how this area lends itself to flexible working and freelance contracts, a hugely growing sector of the economy.
But freelance has pros and cons as follows:
Freelancing means
But freelancing also means
Here are some of the comments from the group when I asked them to jot down some feedback after the lecture:
“I now know my father should stop laughing at my interest in arts and English. You gave me confidence – thanks. I will also re-start my blog. Very inspiring talk.”
“I found there are more jobs out there that you can go into without the more academic subjects. It was interesting to hear all the different ways you can make money from writing.”
“It is as hard as I thought it would be to get a job in journalism. But, I learnt, blogs are a good way to start.”
“I learnt that a lot more can be achieved freelance than I originally thought. Arts and English are much more valuable than I thought.”
“I enjoyed the simple, honest way it was presented. It has made me want a career in journalism even more.”
“I learnt that you don’t have to study maths and science to get an interesting job.”
GAZETTEER
Arts Emergency: Why the arts and humanities matter
Josie Long: ‘Belittling the arts is not funny, Education Secretary’
Liked this? Try also National Freelancers Day: A talk for Leeds University Media students.
Do you agree that choosing arts and humanities can help secure your future career? Share your thoughts below.