Pupils making headlines of their own

Date published: 18/02/2010

Pupils at a local primary school became journalists for the day as they wrote, illustrated, and took photographs to produce their own school newspaper.
School News is a project run by journalist Catherine Smyth and offers primary school pupils the opportunity to create their own newspaper publication.
Catherine, from Weir, has produced school newspapers for her sons’ school, Northern Primary for three years and last year Balladen Primary was the first to hold a week-long School News project where all the children were involved in creating a 16-page paper.
Now the project has been developed for Y6 pupils to tie in with the national curriculum.
St Mary’s CE School, Rawtenstall, held the first project and Y6 teacher Natalie Jackson said: “It was really good. I liked how we took over the ICT suite and it became a newsroom with all the children getting on with writing, interviewing and taking photographs for their newspaper.
“I think the finished product is brilliant and something all the children in Y6 can be very proud of.
“I was wondering how all the different pieces of writing would fit together in the newspaper but Catherine made it work.”
The day began with an interactive journalism talk by Catherine who then led a headline sorting exercise. The pupils then chose the title for their paper, decided on the content and assigned jobs to each member of the class.
After break, the ICT suite became a newsroom as they interviewed, wrote, devised puzzles and assembled news for their four-page paper, The St Mary’s Telegraph.
Sehnaz Begum said: “I liked being able to take photographs because I got to go all over school. It was really fun and I think the newspaper looks really good.”
Sadia Akthar added: “Thank you very much (to Catherine) for helping us to make the paper. I wrote about craft club and I got to go out and interview different people. It made me want to be a journalist.”

To run a School News project at your school contact Catherine on 01706 877150, 07903 997375 or email catherine.smyth4@btinternet.com