 Katie and Michael behind the microphone bringing their radio scripts to life. |
Teachers involved in BBC News School Report put themselves in their students' shoes as they learned to make the news. With no prior preparation, 10 members of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT), worked to a deadline to create TV and radio news programmes and news web pages.
They researched, gathered, wrote, assembled, ordered and broadcast the news in order to pass on their experience to their own students who will be making the news for real on 22 March 2007 - School Report News Day.
The teachers travelled from schools as far away as Cheshire and Tyne and Wear to Barking Abbey School in East London which was transformed into a newsroom on 3 November 2006.
 Searching for news stories during the planning meeting. |
The day began with a planning meeting during which the group identified their audience as teenagers and decided on the stories to cover. The selected news topics included a report about teenagers being "too fat for the army", a �6.62m painting, a car accident involving a girl from the host school, and football manager Alex Ferguson celebrating 20 years at Manchester United.
The group then split into three teams, each creating news for a different media: TV, radio and online.
ONLINE
 The web team write their reports. |
The online team began by sourcing pictures and chasing facts. They interviewed a number of people in the school in order to gather quotes.
Cleverly, they also used some of the quotes collected by the radio and TV groups - mirroring what happens in a real newsroom.
Unphased by the deadline, the team managed to write all stories and illustrated them with photographs by 1430 GMT.
Humanities teacher Robert Baldock from Reading School in Berkshire said: "Creating an online version of the news was time consuming. However, there was less technology to come between us and the story by comparison with the TV and radio teams. Ultimately, this meant it was easier for our group to produce quality news."
"Our team had some difficulty gathering pictures to go with the national stories from the press agencies which have been cleared with the BBC. Perhaps this will encourage schools to cover more local stories where they can use their own digital images."
RADIO
Katie and Michael behind the microphone bringing their radio scripts to life. |
The radio group used a minidisc to collect comments from art students about a work by Jackson Pollock's that had become the most expensive painting sold, according to the New York Times. They also gathered a quote from the school's community police officer about a car accident.
BBC Radio Producer Ros Smith gave their work a final critique. She said: "The choice of stories was good and the audio material collected was great - especially the clips of the students."
She also commented that the group's work had generated some tips for other teachers involved in School Report:
Radio tips
Keep scripts short. An average radio bulletin lasts between two and three minutes and individual clips are rarely longer than 30 seconds. Ros commented: "The final bulletin was too long at six minutes 50 seconds." Gather your own quotes. Ros said: "If you read out quotes taken from other reports, you have to say where you got them from, which takes up valuable air time. It's much more original to gather your own quotes. "If you are going to use a quote from another source, make sure it's reliable. If the quote is something controversial, don't use it at all. Journalists are not legally allowed to repeat a malicious comment."
Paraphrase your quotes. Ros said: "As you don't have a lot of time in a radio report, it is often a good idea to paraphrase what someone says, rather than playing the entire interview. Add in the best audio clip or sound bite." Think about your audience and the language you use. Ros said: "The phrase 'bad for your health', for example, is better than 'detrimental to your health', if your audience is a group of teenagers." TV
 Camera operator Steve Walker imparts some filming tips. |
The group producing TV news was larger than the radio and online teams Ros said: "This wasn't surprising because making a TV programme is a complicated business - especially with unfamiliar equipment."
The group began by collecting material and writing stories.
Cameraman Steve Walker showed two of the group how to make a short TV report for the final bulletin.
Other members of the team rigged the studio and planned a live interview with the school's community police officer.
 The TV group arrange the layout of the studio. |
Technical difficulties meant the group were unable to record the final bulletin. BBC director Rob Hopkin, who worked with the group, said: "The task of pulling the programme together ultimately proved to be technologically overwhelming.
"The lessons to be learned are to: Think simple, short and safe; don't aim too high; only attempt to cover a few stories; do plenty of practice; know your limitations and work within them."
Catherine Hughes from St Robert of Newminster Roman Catholic School in Tyne and Wear thought that the day was useful but agreed that timing was important.
Ros Smith concluded: "When it comes to BBC News School Report it seems that practice makes perfect!"
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