 | PRACTICE NEWS DAY DATES Thursday 15 November 2007 Thursday 13 December 2007 Thursday 17 January 2008 Thursday 7 February 2008 |
The BBC would like as many schools as possible to take part in the practice News Day on Thursday 7 February, as a way of preparing for the UK-wide News Day - the culmination of the School Report. Teachers who did so last year said that although they were slightly nervous about "going in cold", the experience helped them plan ahead and ultimately served to illustrate the extent of the students' progress by the end of the project.
HOW DO I TAKE PART?
1. Contact Schools Producer Ros Smith to let her know.
2. Return the head teacher agreement and consent forms to Ros, by fax or post, before the practice News Day.
Our school can't do Thursday 7 February, can we choose another day?
Yes. Contact Schools Producer Ros Smith to let her know your preferred date.
WHAT DO WE HAVE TO DO ON THE PRACTICE NEWS DAY?
It is up to each school to decide how they would like to run their practice News Day.
However, experience shows that students and teachers derive maximum benefit from practice News Days by treating them as they would the UK-wide News Day:
This entails meeting two deadlines:
- 1400 GMT - students complete their news reports
- 1600 - reports are published on the school website (or that of an educational body)
HOW DO WE APPEAR ON THE BBC?
The BBC aims to link to each school's news page from this website, giving students a UK-wide audience for their work on the practice News Day.
Remember to send the address of your webpage to Ros Smith.
In addition, a member of the School Report team will be ringing each of the participating schools during the practice News Day, in order to feature news-making activities on the School Report website.
During the day students will be able to see a running account of their own work and activities taking place in schools across the UK.
If you have a preferred contact phone number please send it to Ros Smith, otherwise the school office will receive the call.
Please also send us photographs of your practice News Day, so we can publish them on the BBC website.
Reports made in advance of the News Day may also be featured on BBC TV, radio and websites. They may also be broadcast on School Report's own TV web channel, radio station, and web pages on 13 March 2008.
Making a video or audio report now will increase the chance of it being broadcast by the BBC.
If you have an idea for a video or audio report for BBC TV or radio, and would like some help, please contact Ros Smith.
HOW TO KEEP YOUR NEWS SAFE AND LEGAL
Before publishing, it is important to check students' work is safe and legal. Teachers should read our guide and ask students to take our quiz.
Here are a few golden rules to share with students:
- Only use children's FIRST names
- Don't report anything which makes you uncomfortable
- Report the facts, NOT rumours
- Report both sides of the story
- Avoid crime stories
- Only use YOUR OWN photos, music etc
NEWS DAY RESOURCES
This guide will help you plan and execute a News Day.
In the PUBLISHING TO THE WEB section on the homepage of the website, you will find practical information on equipment, internet publishing and keeping news safe and legal.
In the Resources section of this website (see link, top left) you will find a host of material to support practice News Days, grouped into categories including:
- News Day preparation
- TV news
- Radio news
- Online news
- News on a mobile phone
- Sport news
- Political news
- International news
- Entertainment news
- Weather reporting
Within these categories there are case studies, which outline how other teachers have run News Days, practical guides to different aspects of news-making, and tips from journalists. The following case studies of News Days run by schools can also be found in the middle column of the Resources section of this website (see link, top left).
Teachers may also like to use this News Day flow-chart created by John Westwood from Mayfield School in Dagenham, Essex. It explains how the students' different roles fit together to create a broadcast.
TEACHERS' FEEDBACK
The following comments are from teachers who took part in the December practice News Day.
Dawn Hughes from Desborough School in Berkshire said: "It was the most rewarding day I have experienced in my 16 years of teaching. All the students were a pleasure to be with, listened and contributed fully, something that every teacher strives for."
She added: "The level of excitement and focus increased when the students witnessed their first piece go live on the School Report site.
"Although there was a lot of work involved, today has been absolutely brilliant. I'm going to ask the head if we can arrange another practice News Day."
Sheila Sloan from Caedmon School in North Yorkshire said: "It was a very valuable experience as the students are going to decide themselves how to move forward."
Lisa McKerley from Hillhead High School in Glasgow said: "The students loved it. We saw the article with their comments about the practice News Day and they were over the moon! It was so good to see their photos there too."
Karen Killeen from Stoke High School said: "The students were really impressed with what they had achieved and the practice News Day went really, really well."
Anne Walker from Rainham School for Girls in Kent said: "It was a really exciting day and a really steep learning curve for some Year 7s who learned how to create a web page. There was a lot of enthusiasm."
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