Working together: BBC and students

Helen Shreeve,
School Report editor explains

School Report gives 11-14-year-olds the chance to make and broadcast their own news at school. They set the editorial agenda, not the BBC, but how involved is the BBC in what appears on BBC TV, radio and online?

BBC staff sometimes help with filming School Reports

The help we are able to give to schools varies enormously. Some schools do absolutely everything on their own and others have BBC mentors or a project partner to help them. The essential part is that the idea for the story and the impetus behind the report comes from the students themselves.

Occasionally, we will give schools some practical help in filming and editing for TV. For example these reports on tree planting and eating disorders were devised, researched and written by the students but filmed and edited by the BBC.

We also help schools by booking big name guests. For example we approach the prime minister every year and request an interview for School Report. We then offer this to schools. The students come up with their own questions helped by their teachers, but we give them advice on how to make the best of the opportunity. These top tips from political correspondent Ross Hawkins gives you an idea about the sort of things we might suggest.

Sometimes because we know a topic that might interest schools and our wider audiences is coming up in the news diary we ask if any school would be interested in covering it for us; or sometimes we approach schools who we know are already interested in the subject. The size zero story for School Report 2008 explains how this can work in practice.

School Report is a partnership between schools and BBC News and every case will be slightly different but we are all working to ensure that young people have the opportunity to engage with news by making and broadcasting it for real. And we want to give our audiences the chance to see and hear young people making their reports about the stories that matter to them.

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