Press Gang!

PUPILS are out to be five-star students by producing their own outstanding newspaper.

I was welcomed to Brinsworth Howarth by Class 5 teacher, Richard Shaw, who explained that the children, who are aged nine and ten, were working on their class newspaper, Five Star News.

They kicked off my time in their class with a wide range of enthusiastic questions.

In fact, I was soon faced with a sea of hands waving wildly in the air as the youngsters waited their turn to ask me about being a reporter.

There were questions such as “Who is the most famous person you’ve met?”, to which I answered foreign secretary and Rotherham-born “lad” William Hague, and “What skills and training do you need to become a journalist?”

The youngsters had learnt about the six questions that should be answered within every newspaper story: who, what, when, where, why and how?

And they were enjoying working on their own publication.

Pupil Tony Horner told me: “I would like to work for a paper.

“I’ve enjoyed working on our class newspaper.”

Classmate Hishaam Walayat had his eye on BBC Look North weatherman Paul Hudson’s role, telling me: “I would like to be a weatherman on the television — or a news reporter.”

Mr Shaw asked the class what they had enjoyed about writing their own stories for Five Star News.

Hishaam said that he had liked learning all the facts and everything else which they had found out about for their stories, for example statistics relating to the New Century Global Centre in China, which is the biggest building in the world and which the children had been covering for their newspaper.

Being a “snapper” was a popular ambition for many of the youngsters, one of them being Ayesha Akhtar, who said that she would like to be either a writer or a photographer.

And Jessie Roberts said that she enjoyed taking pictures with her mum’s camera.

Lewis Wadsworth also hopes to become a photographer and said: “I’d like it, because you can travel.”

The children were intrigued by shorthand and I showed them an example in my notebook, before being put on the spot by Mr Shaw, who asked if I could write some on the class whiteboard.

Although my shorthand is probably not as correct now as when I left college, I duly took down the dictated sentence “My name is Mr Shaw and I am a teacher at Brinsworth Howarth Primary School” and produced the appropriate hieroglyphs on the board.

The children thanked me very politely for visiting them and I was happy to thank them for their warm welcome and enthusiasm.

I wish them luck on their quest to become five-star reporters.

Any other schools who would like to arrange a visit are asked to contact Michele by emailing [email protected] or phoning 01709 768161.