Heathcote School

Mrs Carn and Form II

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Heathcote Herald - By the Pupils, About the Pupils, For the Pupils
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Our Intrepid Photo Journalists!

With the launch of the Digital Photography Club this term has come a request from the children to create their own school newspaper / webpage / blog.  It has been inspiring to see the degree of enthusiasm for this new venture - do come back and visit this page again to see the progress that the children have made as the Heathcote Herald develops!

 

Children - we have put these links and articles on here to give you some ideas and starting points for your first articles.  Have a look, think about it and go for it!

 

Why have a school newspaper


Loads of people who work in media jobs started out by writing for school or college newspapers.

It's a great way of learning how a story is put together.

You can also learn about the different jobs involved and work out which one you might be interested in.

Having a newspaper or magazine can also make your school a better place. By letting people know what's going on you make it easier to organise clubs and events.

Papers also help people talk about the things that they are unhappy with and that can lead to changes in the way a school works.


What can you put in one?

A crowd of children,walking
There's a lot going on in schools so you should never be short of things to put in the paper. These are just some of the things you could include:

1. News. Anything that affects people at your school.

2. Sports reports. Let people know how the school teams have done.

3. Clubs and activities. Does everyone know about all the things they could be doing? Probably not.

4. School trips. Get someone who went on the trip to write about what happened.

5. Buildings. If there is any building work happening people are always pretty nosey about what the changes will mean.

6. Quizzes. Set some questions for your classmates.

7. Recipes. What's your favourite meal? Share it with your mates, it doesn't have to be anything flash.

8. Local celebs. Write a piece about somebody well known who comes from your area.

9. Artwork. remember to include some nice stuff to look at. It's good to get someone who is good at art on the team.

10. Photos. Go out and about in the corridors taking pictures of pupils and teachers. They will want to get your paper to see themselves in print.

11. Reviews. Talk about the latest films or albums from your fave artists.

What jobs are there?
If you have a small team then everyone just does a bit of everything, BUT if you have more people these are the sort of jobs they can do.

Editor
The editor is the boss of the paper - they decide what sort of stories it should cover and let the staff know who is doing what.

Sub editor
A sub lets the writers know what stories are needed. They also check the stories and make any changes they think will make the story appeal to more people.

Cartoonist
You could get someone good at art to do a cartoon for each issue of the paper, they could even do a comic strip.

Sports writer
A big sports fan who would go along to school matches and write you a report. They need to know the rules and scoring systems. Someone into lots of different sports would be ideal.

Feature writer
Someone who likes to research things in a bit more depth, maybe doing longer interviews with people rather than just getting a couple of quotes.

Photographer
Photos are great for attracting readers to your stories. The quality can be a bit dodgy if you are photocopying your paper, so it's good to have someone who knows what they are doing with a digital camera. You probably also need to lighten the pictures some picture edit software before you paste them into your DTP package.

Picture editor
If you are getting your mag or paper professionally printed you can do a lot more with pictures, a picture editor will decide which shots are the best to use.

Reporters
They write news stories. That could mean going to school events and coming back with a story, or maybe going to get information from several people and piecing it together to make a story that explains things clearly to readers.

Researcher
You might need someone who is really good at digging up information. They would have to know how to use libraries and the internet.

Designer
Someone needs to decide how the paper should look. They can use artwork and design skills to get the pages looking really interesting. They will probably be pretty good with graphics packages on the computer.
  • Try to get the someone from the local newspaper to come and talk to teachers and students who are interested.
  • Get a team of volunteers together. Ask a teacher to help all students in the school to write for the newspaper if they wish (perhaps have a box for articles in the library).
  • Take advantage of everyone in the local area - they seem to be keen to help out schools (interviews, prizes, sponsorship...).
  • Set realistic targets - try and produce one paper per term.
  • Invite a range of people to talk/be interviewed.
  • Write and call book publishers and record companies as they will probably send free stuff to review.
  • Write as much as you can about the school - plays, trips, achievements, building changes, sports etc.

 
An online school newspaper!

Created by the brainstorm group  and the online school newspaper club. Features: Anti-Bullying pages, Football match reviews, A Puzzle Page, News and Views, Book Reviews, Upcoming Events and lots more idears .

Examples

Online Newspaper of Southworld Primary School

BBC Newsround Presspack

Peterbrook Primary School

Manston Primary School

Hooe Primary School

Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School