|
Last week, Year 7 students enjoyed the launch session of Step 3 and Step 7 in a whole year event for students from both Lower Colleges. Both Steps 3 and 7 focus on Media Studies and so it provided a great opportunity for the English & Media Programme to get both colleges together for the first time since the Step 1 launch session in September. Mr. Jones and I both expressed surprise at how much they had grown as they filled a much larger proportion of the Main Hall than they did in at the start of the academic year! The session was devised to help students become accustomed to the role of journalists as Step 3 'Read All About It!' will see students studying Block 1 Steps learn about Magazine and Newspapers and create their own publication. Students who jumped to Block 2 will be learning about Newspapers and Television news as they participate in Step 7 'and now the BBC News with...you!'. The launch session had students working in teams of five with students from their Base Group. Having looked at the role of television news reporters and learned about the BBC School Report that students are invited to be part of as part of Media Club, Mondays after school, they were shown a Press Release about a breaking story. In their teams, students had to write a news report to be filmed and broadcast in just 40 minutes' time. However, more details kept on being released creating a need to re-write and practise in an increasingly frenetic environment as the deadline loomed. Reporters sought out eye-witnesses and Researchers kept up-to-date by following press releases, police statements and even Tweets as they constantly updated the broadcast teams. As this was going on, newsreaders and script-writers rehearsed and re-wrote as they prepared their report that had to last exactly 60 seconds. The launch took up Period 1 and 2 and colleagues from Maths and Themes lessons came to support the English teachers as they helped to supervise the intrepid news-teams as they prepared their reports. The students had a great time and all members of staff and visitors were very impressed with the professionalism demonstrated in the final reports. More details about the BBC News School Report project that Hampton Academy students will be participating in are available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/default.stm Mark ScrubyProgramme Leader for English and Media |
|
|
