Making the News

Year 8 pupils became BBC journalists for a day, covering school, national and international stories.

BBC Radio News reporter Stephen Chittenden came in before BBC School Report News day to give expert advice on how the young newshounds should set about compiling their reports. Their widely varied news topics included The Leys Lenten Appeal, library closures, teenage obesity and eating disorders and the forthcoming London Olympics.

Mr Chittenden said: “They did very well. I talked to them beforehand about a few principles of reporting, and I put a lot of what they had done up on the [BBC] website.”

Andrew Batterham, who teaches English to Year 8, said pupils had shown independence and worked effectively.

“The stuff they came up with was fantastic. For their report on obesity they went and interviewed people in the city centre. They involved the school’s catering manager for information on healthy eating and spoke to a specialist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.”

The Leys’s IT Department provided the necessary technical support and put some of the pupils’ reports on the school’s website.

Pupils who took part were awarded certificates of achievement from the BBC.