Lovely article in the Burton Mail today (23rd March) about our exploits on BBC Schools’ News Report Day:
BUDDING young reporters at an East Staffordshire secondary school took part in a special event as part of a national journalism project.
Pupils from Paulet High School, in Violet Way, Stapenhill, picked up microphones and video camera to produce a range of stories on the seventh annual BBC School Report news day.
Among the topics covered were the horsemeat scandal, an interview with a cancer survivor and an author and a comment piece on the after-effects of the Olympics.
A spokesman for the school said: “As part of the project, some pupils interviewed children’s author John Townsend last week.
“He writes in lots of different genres including plays, non-fiction and fiction. Some of his recent fiction novels include The Barney Trilogy.
“They asked John some questions about his work and life.
“When asked what his all-time favourite book that he had written was, John said that he couldn’t really answer that question, saying that ‘books are like children and would you ask a parent to choose their favourite child?’”
Other issues covered included this year’s Eurovision song contest, meteorites, comets and an amusing how-to guide teaching viewers how to copy a range of popular dances including Gangnam Style and the Harlem Shake.
More than 33,000 pupils from around the UK took part – all working to deadlines as they covered the stories which mattered to them.
BBC School Report gives 11 to 16-year-old pupils in the UK the chance to make their own news reports for a real audience.
Using lesson plans and materials from the BBC website, and with support from BBC staff and partners, teachers help students develop their journalistic skills to become school reporters.
School Report editor Helen Shreeve said: “We wanted young people to have the chance to tell us about stories that are really important to them and we also want to give them the chance to find out what makes news and how news gets to our screens and our airwaves.
“The breadth and depth of the content produced by the thousands of pupils taking part certainly bears testimony to that.”
