EVERY year, Budehaven School staff organise activities for the end of summer term. These range from outdoor pursuits, sports, trips, plays and a range of other activities on offer.

‘Journalist for a Day’ is one such activity.

Students are introduced to a range of national news stories through a variety of the day’s newspapers.

Staff mock up a news conference and decide the running order of the national stories that the students have identified. English department teachers Ms Curtis and Mr Haynes brief the students on how to prepare questions and approach members of the public in town and in local businesses.

Headline national news on Monday, July 23 was that half of all recycling is exported to China and third world countries where it is dumped in landfill. Students asked locals and visitors their opinions on this.

Other stories the students followed up included labelling food products more explicitly in terms of Vitamin D as The Times had run a story that linked higher intakes of Vitamin D with cancer prevention.

The students took notes and after a well-deserved cold drink at Life’s a Beach headed back to the newsroom to write their stories. These were all collated to make a mini newspaper. Students were also encouraged to submit stories, reviews and news items to the termly Budehaven School Magazine (see the school website for the online version), which is linked to the skills that the students are taught during the Journalist for a Day activity.

Ms Curtis and Mr Haynes said: “We have been running this activity for some time and every year we get a fantastic group of young people who are engaged with the wider world of national and international news media. By the end of the day, they have learned how to write a properly constructed news story, embedding quotes from members of the public, showing examples of thorough background research and have also honed the skill of questioning and responding to a range of opinions from the interviewees. They also discuss the effectiveness of their chosen layout, headlines and learn how to catch readers’ attention through language.”

Thanks were expressed to locals and visitors who were prepared to be interviewed by the young journalists.