Primary pupils to produce their own school magazine

11:11am Thursday 2nd October 2008

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STORY time could be taken to a whole new level at a York primary school as budding young journalists get ready to set up their own magazine.

Youngsters at Acomb Primary School, are to team together with teachers to write and design a monthly news publication.

Teacher Debbie Brooke said weekly meetings will held at the school during the day, for the children to brainstorm what they would like in the paper, and the final product will come out monthly.

The magazine will then be published in the school, and made available for parents to look at when they visit.

“It is an idea very much in the pipeline at the moment, but an idea I think a lot of us at the school are very excited about,” said Ms Brooke. “It will be a magazine and a newspaper in one, bringing in different skills from all the children, such as literacy, IT, design technology and other academic subjects. There are some very gifted and talented children in the school and this would be a great way of showcasing the range of talent across the whole of the school.”

Ms Brooke said the magazine will encompass a wide range of stories, based on ideas from the children themselves.

“The stories that we will cover will hopefully be across a range of subjects, including both feature and news articles,” she said.

“For example, the children could interview some of the teachers at the school and do profiles on them, we could do current community events and the events that are happening in the school specifically. What we want to do is really let the children brainstorm and see what they want to see in the magazine. It will be predominately their project – what to call it, the design of it and the content.”

Ms Brooke said the idea was sparked last month, when she was trying to think of a new project that would encompass a wide range of talents from the five to 11-year-olds who attend the school.

“All the schools in the country have to show to be working with all children with different needs; I think an ongoing school project like this certainly meets that criteria. I certainly haven’t heard of another York primary school carrying out a project like this, so it will be nice to be involved in something so innovative.”