Two of our academies, Heartsease Primary Academy and Valley Primary Academy, have been selected by the Education Endowment Foundation to take part in a research project with the Young Journalist Academy
The project aims to develop Year 5 pupils’ writing by involving them in journalism. The project begins by setting up a ‘newsroom’ and pupils are invited to apply for roles through a written application and a formal interview. Up to 15 pupils are selected to take on editorial roles, but all pupils are involved in writing newspaper articles, radio production and video journalism. Pupils are involved at every stage of the process. Throughout the year there is an emphasis on publishing content, which provides an authentic purpose and audience for writing and can encourage pupils to share, revise and edit their work.
Over the course of a year, two journalists come to the school eight times to work alongside pupils and teachers in leading the project.. Between the visits by the journalists, the teacher and pupils selected to take on editorial roles can continue to engage with the project. For example, they can send content that they produce to the organisation delivering the project, who can publish it on their website, which has a monthly audience of over 20,000 visitors.
The links below will take you directly to the work published by two of our Valley Primary Academy pupils!
http://youngjournalistacademy.com/the-elf-invasion
http://youngjournalistacademy.com/could-you-run-a-mile-every-day%E2%80%8B/
