Park Community students have been mentoring School Reporters
Although School Report showcases the news created by 11 to 14 year-olds, older students can take part in the project by mentoring their peers.
Teachers might find it useful to read how 14 to 17-year-old students at four schools have passed on their expertise to School Reporters and what they have gained from the experience.
Nine students from Park Community School in Havant, Hampshire, who took part in School Report in 2006/7 mentored younger students during the UK-wide News Day in March 2008.
To prepare for the event, they undertook a day's
mentor training
on 5 February, which teachers may like to adapt.
Nine students from Coombeshead College in Newton Abbot, Devon, also ran a truncated practice News Day after a morning of mentor training on 25 January, while Key Stage 4 and 5 English students at Rainham School for Girls in Gillingham, Kent assisted Year 7 students during the UK-wide News Day.
At South Chadderton School in Oldham, students from four year groups worked together to make video and audio news. Teachers might like to adapt the
timetable of the day
.
Team leaders
At Coombeshead, each mentor became a team leader of a TV, radio or online news team.
Coombeshead College students filming a press conference
Teacher Sue White said: "Assuming the role of mentor gave students the chance to develop their negotiation and leadership skills.
"Taking part in last year's School Report was a great confidence-builder for them, and the confidence they gained has increased by working as mentors.
"The practice News Day also gave them the chance to brush up on their news skills."
She added: "The new School Reporters said they gained from working with the mentors.
"It gave them the chance to find out what the News Day would be like from a student's point of view, they could learn from their mentors' experience, and they were inspired by their mentors' enthusiasm."
Refreshing skills
Year 10 mentor Nicola, 14, from Rainham School for Girls in Gillingham, Kent, said: "Working with an unfamiliar audience is something I need to do for my English GSCE - and it refreshes my own interview skills."
Amy, 11, who was working on a film review, said: "I prefer other students' suggestions, rather than teachers', because I know they've been there before."
Her mentor, Besime, 17, said: "For the language production part of our English AS-level, we write reviews and we also have to write a commentary on our work, so commenting on Amy's review has really helped me."
Rainham School for Girls student Meghan mentors Year 7 students
After using her mentoring skills during a practice News Day, Meghan, 16, wrote: "It also benefited me as it made me realise the way in which the media functions and helped me to understand the importance of deadlines in the real world.
"Learning how to use different equipment, such as the MP3 recorders, will also help me with my Media Studies course."
Meghan kept an
online diary
of her experience and is planning to refer it in her personal statement.
Mixing year groups
At South Chadderton School, four groups of four students - one each from Year 7,8,9 and 10 - took part in a News Day, broadcasting the news on Oldham City Learning Centre's website on 11 July 2008.
Assistant Head Teacher and Head of English, Maxine Coates, said: "It encouraged our students to critically evaluate the news and not just accept everything they see on TV.
"It was a fantastic opportunity for the students and staff to develop ICT and communication skills, which will be invaluable to them in later life.
"To have a professional product gave them a great sense of pride and achievement and I'm sure that we have a budding Kate Adie in our midst."
MENTOR TRAINING ACTIVITIES
What makes a good team?
Different coloured pens differentiate qualities and evidence
Students identify an inspirational team, for example a successful school sports team.
They brainstorm answers to the questions:
What does this team do/have?
How does the team know when they have been successful? What do they see, hear, feel?
Asking students to describe the difference between a team and a group may also help them define evidence of success.
News Day mission statement
Using the answers to the above activity, students identify three goals they wish to achieve with their team by the end of the News Day, describing what they will see, hear and/or feel if they are successful. This becomes their News Day mission statement.
A simple way to express them is to write them on a School Report poster, which mentors can then use as a visual reminder for their team.
Students may also like to refer to the school's mission statement and its layout on the school website.
How to find out what people need help with?
Students might like to listen to these suggestions from Coombeshead College students and identify their own methods.
Mentors' role during the News Day
Using this table as a guide, students identify their role during the different "sessions" of the News Day.
EXAMPLE NEWS DAY TIMETABLE
Start time
End time
Session
School Reporter role
Mentor role
09:00
09:10
Briefing
Understand plan for day, safety arrangements
Brief School Reporters (SRs) on health and safety
09:10
09:45
Find
Research news stories
09:45
10:00
News meeting
Feedback story ideas
10:00
11:00
Gather
Conduct interviews, film, record, take photographs, make graphics
Allocate SR roles e.g. reporter, camera operator, sound operator, director, photographer
11:00
12:00
Write
Write scripts and reports
12:00
13:00
Assemble
Edit, add photographs and graphics to words
13:00
14:00
Order
Suggest order of news stories
14:00
15:00
Broadcast
Present
15:00
15:20
De-brief meeting
Take on board feedback
15:20
16:00
Publish
Upload reports to school website
Ground rules for working together
From the table above, students identify one session, and within that session, one potentially tricky situation involving communication between a School Reporter and a mentor. They discuss how to, and how not to, speak to, and behave towards, a School Reporter.
They devise two role plays which exemplify:
Poor team work
Good team work
From the positive example, students draw up a list of ground rules for working together.
To make the risk of an electric shock happening even lower than it already is, I'll make sure we keep all liquids away from the computers.
Aaron
Risk assessment
Students scan the locations where School Reporters will be working on the News Day to identify any potential hazards.
They can use this information to brief School Reporters at the start of a News Day.
Explain to students that as well as briefing School Reporters on physical safety, it is also their role to brief them on safety issues to do with identity and the law.
Students take this online quiz and discuss the safety and legal issues underpinning the answers.
Trip hazards could be a problem and to minimise the risk, I plan to clear the floor before the News Day starts.
Sam
As part of a News Day briefing session, mentors could ask School Reporters to take this quiz and be on hand to discuss the reasons for adhering to these rules:
Only use children's FIRST names
Don't report anything which makes you uncomfortable
I'd like us to have good reasoning skills. I'll know if we've achieved this because we'll have taken everybody's ideas into consideration, not just those of the leaders.
Bobbi
Students gather together for an introduction to the day and another chance to view the Huw Edwards video on finding the news.
Run-down of the safety rules for the day and recap of the news values, who the audience is, what counts as news, the three Cs and the five Ws.
10.00
Students move to computer rooms. They have half an hour to find news, from sources such as the internet and newspapers, but also from their school or local community. Students write their research on "News Story Idea" sheets, which contain the headings:
What happened?
Who was involved?
Where did it happen?
When did it occur?
Why did it happen?
Where did you find this news (sources)?
10.30
Editorial meeting, where a representative from each group, referring to the "News Story Idea" sheets, pitches for the inclusion of their stories. The meeting decides whether each story is:
• In - interesting, important etc - or out - not current, legally tricky, etc
• Best suited to radio or to TV , depending on the availability of visual material etc
During this meeting, the remaining students recap gathering news using activities from
lesson 2
.
Six students are chosen for the TV production team, and sent for training with the technical crew. The jobs are: camera operators, grips and vision mixers.
11.00
Small teams of students, are given:
A format, either TV or radio
A section of the final broadcast e.g. national news, community news
One or two in stories
Working on stories, which may not have been their original ideas, students:
Research the stories on the "News Story Idea" sheets in more detail
Gather facts (5 Ws), quotations, interviews, background information e.g. statistics
Gather digital material e.g. vox pops, images
Tell each other their stories verbally
Write a script which includes a hand-over over to the next team
Practise presenting their script
Groups working in radio may begin to record and edit their bulletin as soon as they like.
13.00
Students working on the TV bulletin meet up with the technical teams in the studio, while those working in radio start to focus on editing or assembling their bulletin.
The sections of the TV broadcast are recorded as live, with any false starts edited out afterwards.
During the edit, pre-recorded segments are inserted to cover the changeover of students between sections.
14.00
Webmasters publish the completed broadcasts to the website by 16.00.
Students review their work and complete evaluations.
Before the training, mentor Lauren classed herself as a beginner, Craig, Sam and Sian put themselves on the learner rung, while Marcus Aaron, Bobbi, Matt and Zach considered themselves to be able.
As well as assessing themselves before and after the training, they also plan to assess themselves before and after the UK-wide News Day.
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To make the risk of an electric shock happening even lower than it already is, I'll make sure we keep all liquids away from the computers.
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