Budding writers, photographers and television presenters from Manor Green’s middle school showed off their work at a media fair on Tuesday.
Two reporters from the Advertiser went along to meet the children and learn all about their ‘Breaking News’ project.
Chief reporter Adrian Williams and community news reporter Melissa Paulden took part in a question and answer session in the school hall
before going on a tour of five classrooms to view each class’ presentations.
Questions posed to the two reporters were things like: ‘What are the challenges you face?’, ‘What hours do you do?’ and ‘What stories do you like covering?’.
Leading up to the media fair and the reporters’ visit, the students spent several weeks analysing reporting styles from websites to newspapers as well as coming up with publications of their own.
Students showed the breadth of their creative writing skills when dreaming-up outlandish ‘alien invasion’ stories at the same time as tackling ‘real news’.
Teachers and staff at Manor Green School, as well as family members, were interviewed and a raft of stories from ‘teacher passes driving test’ to ‘grandmother speaks about her Windrush experience’ were intelligently researched and written.
The students also recreated news reports using historical facts and incidences such as the Great Fire of London and leapt into the future with a gripping ‘apocalyptic-style’ news broadcast, using a news anchor and ‘reporters on the scene’ showing scenes of
devastation and attack during a ‘World War Three’.
Creativity also extended to art class where the children handcrafted camera equipment. Others made ‘breaking news typography’ using a mix of paints and mosaics and most of the articles created throughout the project were accompanied by hand drawn illustrations.
The most popular story that the children covered during the entire project was one of the town’s biggest talking points – will Maidenhead United be moving to Braywick Park?
Dr Jasper Holmes, one of the teachers leading on the Breaking News project, said: “The Breaking News project gives the students an insight into how it all works and we involve every subject not just English.
“For instance, in maths we took one of your stories about a marathon fundraiser and did calculations about how much was raised.
“The children have all got a lot out of the project and the most important learning aspect of it all is teamwork.”
Adrian Williams said: “There is nothing quite like getting up in front of a group of curious schoolchildren and racking your brains to think about how to describe what you do all day, and why it matters.
“Not all of their questions were entirely expected – many were much more creative than anything I could have thought of.
“It was so sweet to see them excited to be able to match a face and name in their local newspaper to a living, breathing person, and I hope it inspires them to engage with local news now and in the
future.”
https://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/gallery/home/186863/students-showcase-breaking-news-project-at-manor-green-school-s-media-fair.html
