After a hectic day in the Light Hall School Newsroom our team of intrepid reporters (left) unearthed some quite amazing news stories. Amongst our top stories are reports on the credit crunch. An interview with the cast of the School's upcoming stage production ' The Wizard of Oz', and reports on knife crime, makeup and a beautiful Swann.  Our reporter's video presentation (removed 02/10) covers many more topics. Its quite a large video so be prepared to wait a minute or two for it to stream to your computer.  I hope you enjoy reading and watching these news reports as much as our reporters enjoyed making them.  

2009

Report 1.  A Beautiful Swann
________________________________________________
Reporters:   Maariyah and Lauren

Below is a short interview with one of the teachers in our school called Mrs Swann whose daughter recently entered and won a talent and beauty contest.  
  
Mrs Swann's daughter             
   
Q: We heard that your daughter recently won a prize for a beauty contest and she is coming to our school next year, can you tell us more about this?
A: It was a talent and beauty contest. Anyone in England could enter (national competition.)

Q: How old is your daughter?
A: She is 10 years old.

Q: What inspired her to enter?
A: She does a lot of modelling. So her modelling agency put her name forward for the contest.

Q: Where was this contest held and at what time?
A: It was held in London so we were there all day doing rehearsals but the actual contest started at 6:30pm.

Q: Is this contest held annually and how old do you have to be to enter?
A: Yes, it is held annually and you have to be 6-13 to enter.

Q: How do you feel about your daughter winning?
A: Very happy.

Q: What did your daughter do in the competition?
A: She dressed up as Amy Winehouse and sang the song Valerie.

Q: Did she win anything, and if so what did she win?
A: She won a 12 month modelling contract.

Q: Do you think she will enter next year?
A: She wants to but I don’t think she will.

Report 2.  Wizard of Oz
________________________________________________
Reporters:  Lauren. Lizzie K 
  
Lauren and Lizzie K interviewed some of the Cast from the forthcoming Light Hall School production The Wizard of Oz. To see more of the interview watch our video report

Cast members of 'The Wizard of Oz'... and at rehearsals

Report 3.  Knife Crime
________________________________________________
Reporter:  Lauren.

I have been researching knife crime in Britain and have found some shocking results:

The statistics show the number of people sent to jail for carrying a knife went up by almost a quarter, from 1,125 to 1,386, in the last three months of 2008 compared with the year before.

In our school we have had a P.S.D day about the law and one of the sessions we did was about knife crime. We watched a DVD made by West Midlands police called ‘Tooled up for school’. After watching this shocking story we designed a poster each tellling pupils why some people carry knives (due to insecurities etc.) and what you can do if you know someone who has a knife in public.

Many people think that these kind of sessions should happen in all schools as we learned lots of things from these (we think) vital sessions

Report 4.  Make up - Good or bad?
________________________________________________
Reporters:  Maariyah. Hannah. Lizzie K. Chloe.

A problem in most schools, especially in senior schools, is make-up.  Should they be allowed to wear it?   We talked to Miss Chagger the schools pastoral manager to see her view on make-up in schools.

School reporters interviewing Miss Chagger

She 100% agrees with the rules on make-up here at Light Hall.  As we are not allowed to wear foundation or anything, we can turn to alternatives like tinted moisturiser, which covers up stuff like spots and blemishes and can also help get rid of them as they are good for you skin.

We can’t wear make-up because we are not only representing our school but we are also representing ourselves as well. We said to her we only wear make-up because it makes us feel more confident within ourselves. She said: If you feel that you’re so unconfident in yourself then you can talk to someone about it.  Like you could talk to your doctor about if it is spots that are the problem, 

We would like to thank Miss Chagger for coming to talk to us

Report 5.  Credit Crunch
________________________________________________
Reporter:  Chloe. Grace. Mel. 

Today we went round our school asking questions to our class mates about how their family has been affected by the credit crunch!!!

The questionnaire that we did showed us that out of 32 families, 24 are affected by the credit crunch! Which is way over half!!!

This table shows the results of our questionnaire!!

  We all knew the credit crunch has been affecting people but we didn’t know that it was really that bad! What started it all anyway? Are we ever going to get out of this situation? It turns out that it is affecting people in lots of different ways!

Mostly all our local shops have sales on 24/7. They always try to persuade the public to buy such lovely stuff but the thing is, most people haven’t got enough money to buy nice, fashionable clothes!

And finally we asked them what shop they would like to see replace Woolworths. Here is a graph to show our results:

Report 6.  New Baby
________________________________________________
Reporters:  Hannah Georgia, Maariyah. 

Georgia, Hannah and Maariyah interviewed two year 11 students who have been given Jill and Amy (life-like babies) to look after for one week as part of their GCSE... To find out more watch the video interview here   

Life like babies

Report 7.  OAPs & ICT
________________________________________________
Reporters:   Lizzy. Rhiannon. Vicky. 

Rhiannon, Vicky and lizzy interviewed three elderly people about using ICT The elderly people Donald, Rachel and Marjorie are regular visitors to the Light Hall ICT club.

Q: What made you want to learn how to use the computer?
A: Donald said he wanted to keep up with his grandson and Margery said it keeps her brain ticking.

Q: Do you find computers difficult to use?
A: Donald, Rachel and Margery all replied yes very but I find it will be worth it

Q: Did you expect there to ever be this kind of technology?
A: Donald, Rachel and Margery all replied, no not in a million years this type of technology is complicated.

Q: Do you have a computer at home?
A: Donald, said yes Rachel and Margery, said no not yet

Report 8. What is BBC School Report?
________________________________________________
Reporters:   Courtesy BBC 

BBC News School Report will give a group of year 8 Light Hall School students (below) a chance to make their own news reports for a real audience.  

Using  lesson plans and materials from the BBC website, and with support from BBC Staff and Light Hall School teacher Mr Holt (right) students will develop their journalistic skills to become School Reporters.
On 26 March 2009, schools will take part in a News Day, simultaneously creating video, audio and text-based news reports, and publishing them on a school website, to which the BBC aims to link.

During News Day 2008 students and their work featured on News 24, Breakfast News, the One O'clock and Six O'clock News, Newsround, Radio Five Live, Radio 4, 40 local radio stations, 12 regional TV stations, BBC Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and many local and national BBC websites.
The School Report website also became a TV channel and a radio station streaming pupils' news reports and coverage of school-based activities throughout the school day. It was also available on the BBC's red button service.
The BBC aim to create a similar event which gives students a voice and a real audience on 26 March 2009.

BBC News presenter and former teacher, Huw Edwards, is working on School Report.He said: "Over the years I've run many journalism workshops in schools. So I've seen how much fun it can be and how much can be learnt when there are real deadlines, real audiences and real standards to meet."I'm involved because I want to give young people the chance to make the news themselves, and I want to share the principles of good journalism."So have a go, let me know what you think, and good luck!"

Public service
The BBC runs School Report so that young people from across the UK have the chance to make their own news to real deadlines and broadcast it to real audiences. This is because the BBC's first public purpose under its Charter is to "sustain citizenship and civil society", in part by providing an impartial news service for all.