Students from Saint John Houghton Catholic Voluntary Academy explored issues that affect young people when they took on the role of news reporters for the day.
Thirty-one Year 9 students took part in BBC School Report, which gives 11-16 year olds across the UK the chance to make their own news reports for a real audience.
Schools take part in the annual News Day, simultaneously creating video, audio and text-based news reports, publishing them on their school’s website, to which the BBC aims to link.
Students at Saint John Houghton CVA, in Kirk Hallam, decided what issues they would like to cover before carrying out research and either writing stories or creating a report for broadcast.
Both tasks involved interviewing students and teachers and working to a tight deadline with the broadcast students also having to edit the final package.
A range of stories were covered including the English Baccalaureate (Ebacc), the importance of breakfast, how situations at home affect school life, animal cruelty and healthy lifestyles.
The stories were uploaded on to the internet and can be found at http://www.st-johnhoughton.derbyshire.sch.uk/bbc-school-report-2017/
Ian Thomson, English teacher at Saint John Houghton CVA, in Kirk Hallam, said everyone had thoroughly enjoyed the day.
He said: “The BBC School Report is of great benefit to Year 9 as it encourages them to become independent learners. They have to choose their topic, carry out research and present the story in the form of a BBC report which we uploaded to our school website.
“They learnt so many skills from interviewing to editing videos and teamwork and they really enjoyed the day.”
Student Olivia Cuomo, 14, said: “We looked at how situations in your home life could affect you at school so it could be to do with mental health, money issues or divorce. We did a lot of research and looked at statistics before interviewing teachers and students. It was really interesting and good fun too.”
Student Mert-Han Harry, 13, said his group explored the issues around the Ebacc.
He said: “We’ve just picked our options so this is relevant for us. The great thing about taking part was being able to take the story in our own direction.”
