Celebrating BBC Partnerships in Bristol

I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since the BBC announced its first ever city partnership, yet here we are about to celebrate the first anniversary of the Anchor Collaboration in Bristol. The partnership saw key media organisations in the city agree to work together to create a media and creative hub. Part of the BBC’s commitment was to increase our outreach work in the area. Well, we’ve certainly been getting out and about to meet the people of Bristol in the last year.

One of the highlights was School Report, our flagship student journalism scheme, which has seen the number of Bristol schools participating soar since the city partnership began. On annual School Report News Day in March there was a large outside broadcast live from Bridge Learning Campus, which involved many of the local students.



It wasn’t just school children who benefited. We also provided production training for 15 young people not in employment, education or training through BBC Bristol’s Face-to-Face scheme. All the participants received three days intensive training and BBC mentor support. Three of the young people also went on to complete six-week paid work placements. One of the trainees, Romayne Graham, is now working as a runner on Bargain Hunt. This year’s trainees have just been recruited - so good luck to them.



One year on is a great time to review the project and I’ll be in Bristol next week to meet with the partners involved. I look forward to hearing about the successes of the other partners and plans for the future.

Alec McGivan is Head of Outreach

The videos were made in March 2010 as part of BBC School Report, find out more on their website.