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29 October 2014

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You are in: Suffolk > Community > Features > Chantry High makes the news (literally)

Naomi and Raheem take over BBC Radio Suffolk

Naomi and Raheem joined Luke Deal on air

Chantry High makes the news (literally)

Pupils from Chantry High School have made their own news programme as part of BBC News School Day.

News Day is part of BBC's News School Report, which gives 12 and 13-year-olds from 100 UK schools the chance to make their own news at school and to broadcast it via the internet.

The pupils at Chantry High had to decide what to cover in their bulletin and were responsible for the filming, presenting and editing. A deadline of 4pm was set by the national BBC organisers, with Chantry successfully managing to file their piece in time.

Topics covered in the bulletin include the size zero debate, the public's perception of youth, hammer throwing, and how Gordon Brown's budget will affect young people.

The final package also included the pupils' trip to Wattisham Airfield, where they interviewed the crew of an RAF Sea King helicopter.

Live on BBC Radio Suffolk

As well as helping to make Chantry High's bulletin, pupils Naomi and Raheem and teacher Nicola Gower paid a visit to BBC Radio Suffolk's studio to tell Luke Deal about their News Day experience.

Students and crew by the Sea King

The students interview Sea King's crew

"It seemed such an exciting way to add a bit more pizazz to the media studies teaching we do," Nicola said of the project. "We wanted to add to our skills and the skills of the students too.

"It's great for them to research the stories in the news and to re-present those stories to their own age group."

The pupils had been trained ahead of News Day and had an idea of what stories they'd be covering, but the pressure of the 4pm deadline ensured some nail biting moments.

"I don't think they realised quite what would be involved," Nicola continued. "We were surprised that of all the news stories we'd prepared we were still racing on the day to get things done and to get little pieces to camera ready, get it all edited and in the right sequence."

Raheem, who presented to camera and was one of the interviewers, also felt the pressure of working to a tight deadline: "It's been very hectic as we've had to do a lot of editing and script work. It's very hard to work together as everyone has their own ideas but we always came to an agreement in the end."

The final piece is very slick and shows how hard the pupils have worked. But, despite the smooth appearance, Raheem admits to making some crafty edits: "I think we're going to do an outtake piece as I had a lot of jitters and we had to keep going over it. I think we got to take 22!"

Both Raheem and Naomi would like to pursue a career in the media when they're older, with Naomi saying the News Day was a rewarding experience: "You don't realise how much you've been doing until the time's run out.

"And then I thought 'wow, I've done so much today'."

last updated: 11/04/2008 at 14:06
created: 22/03/2007

You are in: Suffolk > Community > Features > Chantry High makes the news (literally)



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