The Elmgreen School trying to meet those dealines.

Young writers in action

Today, at The Elmgreen School, the technology room is no longer the technology room, but has become a newsroom .  Students at our school are taking part in the BBC News School Report, a national project involving over 250 schools.  Students from all over the country are spending today as journalists, reporting the stories that interest them.

 
Students from The Elmgreen School have put in lots of hard work and effort to make the news really happen.   There are about twenty-five students working on the project in our school and we are being helped by Mrs Willis, Mr Fryer – our IT expert – and our BBC journalist mentor, Shelly Alexander.

We asked Ros Smith, the creator of BBC school news report, why the project started in the first place. She told us that the main motivation behind it was for children to “see what it was like to make the news.” She added that it was important to have fun while reporting. She said she hopes to make students all over the UK more involved in the news.

We asked our English teacher, Mrs Willis, who is in charge of our group, why she decided we should be part of this project.   She said, “I think that there are a lot of different reasons for doing it. One of them is for the children to realise what a deadline actually is. Another reason is to build a good team.”   She added that she chose the members of the team because they were interested, and they had worked hard in English and ICT, and that some of the students had especially asked to be part of it.

We also interviewed Newsround’s Jake Humphrey about what it is like to work in news and presenting.  He said, “It’s really hard to present shows because if you mess up, millions of people would see your mistake.”  He added, “It is also good because my mum says she can keep an eye on me on TV - like seeing if I’m eating well.” Jake’s ambition is to present from the 2012 Olympics.

We asked a student taking part in the day what it was like to be a real news reporter.  Rebecca, 12, said, “It’s a great privilege to have a chance like this and to talk with people who do this for a living like Jake Humphrey.  It’s so fun that I’m inspired to become a reporter when I’m older. I never realised how fun this is.  I have been inspired by Shelly Alexander.”