2016-11-16T11:15:33+00:00

Duncan Kirkhope’s enthusiasm for journalism was sparked by the visit of a reporter to his school nearly 40 years ago. Nowadays he tries to repay that debt by being a School Report mentor.

'School Report students question the First Minister with the skill and confidence of political correspondents'

I was about 13 or 14 years old when a journalist from the Dundee Courier daily paper came to a careers event at my school. This chief reporter was enthusiastic about his work as a journalist and said it was a career which could open doors to many varied, interesting and exciting opportunities.

Now, after more than 35 years working for newspapers and BBC News, I still believe that to be true.

It’s probably harder for a young person to embark on a journalistic career nowadays than it was for me at the age of not quite 17 in the early 1980s. But I still like to think that anyone, from whatever background - if they combine enthusiasm with effort - can still achieve that goal.

Certainly many of the School Report students I have had the pleasure of working with over the last five or six years have had these qualities. One 14 year old whom I , practically ran out of the classroom to do an extra interview when I suggested one more quote would provide the final balance to an otherwise great piece of news writing.

I have taken School Report students to the Scottish Parliament to question the First Minister which they did with the skill and confidence of political correspondents. Young people I have worked with have presented their journalism live on the BBC News Channel. One group’s School Report project was judged so good, they were chosen to interview the Deputy Prime Minister at Number 10.

Being a School Report mentor needn’t be a huge time commitment. I did have a request once asking if I could pop along to a school, give the students some ideas, help them film a feature and then edit it for them....

But I believe School Report is more about young people finding their own stories that they want to tell. Then it’s the mentor’s role to help them take their work to the standards of BBC journalism.

Working with young people reminds me what an interesting job being a journalist is. Sometimes I forget that, too caught up in the hectic daily schedules of a busy newsroom. It rekindles the enthusiasm I had as a teenager starting out.

If I can interest a young person in journalism, who may have thought such an opportunity wasn’t open to them, then that would be a great achievement. It would also repay a debt to that enthusiastic journalist who came to my school nearly forty years ago.

BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility brings the BBC closer to its audiences - particularly those audiences we have identified as harder to reach - with face-to-face activity, community and staff volunteering.

BBC School Report is a partnership between BBC Academy, BBC News, BBC Sport, and BBC Children’s - it gives thousands of 11-16-year-old students in the UK the chance to make their own reports for a real audience, using lesson plans, BBC learning materials, and the help of BBC mentors.

2016-11-16T10:36:15+00:00

Abigail Seager used her STEM skills to inspire School Reporters to code and create infographics on News Day.

'The most rewarding thing about it was having a chance to get out of the office and try and inspire the next generation of broadcasters'

When I was first asked to mentor for School Report I was a Graduate Trainee Broadcast Engineer, and my immediate thought was ‘but I’m not a journalist!’ That’s still true. Now I’m a project engineer, I don’t even write in my spare time, in fact this is the first non-academic thing I’ve written since I left school. So what on earth could I have to offer a school full of students who want to produce great news articles?!

School Report provided some really strong training, so when I first went in to the school I had some tricks up my sleeve (wise up on your five W’s, they’re a lifesaver!). School Report also has some brilliant online resources for lesson planning and ideas.
I have mentored at two schools now – the second was the school I went to. The teacher was really enthusiastic about me meeting the students. We had a group of about 30, from all different year groups.

Being an engineer was not a problem – I was able to look at the team of students and see their strengths as I got to know them, and suggest to them different team roles that it takes to put an item or a broadcast together.

I visited a couple of times leading up to News Day and the most surprising thing for me was the sheer excitement and enthusiasm from the students. Their energy was infectious. As an engineer it can be quite easy to get detached from the audience we serve every day. School Report was a great reminder for me that beyond my computer screen is a real audience.

School Report mentoring is a great way to meet the audience for BBC staff whose jobs are usually office-based

That energy continued into News Day and all the way through it. The students produced an incredible range of news; from written articles, to radio pieces, to TV bulletins and even a photo gallery. There were funny stories revealing the secret lives of teachers and more serious ones about the issues close to the students’ hearts.

I even managed to convince a few students to get technical and produce infographics using a coding tool provided by School Report. I was impressed by the quality of what they produced in just a day – most of it was far superior to anything I could have done!

When you meet the students, they have so many questions about anyone who works for the BBC – the best ones are how did I get the job and how much do I earn.

Being a mentor was rewarding in many ways. I got to connect with an audience that I rarely have any with, I learned a lot about what it takes to make the news and I even went some way to conquering a fear of speaking to groups.

But by far the most rewarding thing about it was having a chance to get out of the office and try and inspire the next generation of broadcasters. It’s a unique chance to show young people what this industry can offer them.

BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility brings the BBC closer to its audiences - particularly those audiences we have identified as harder to reach - with face-to-face activity, community and staff volunteering.

BBC School Report is a partnership between BBC Academy, BBC News, BBC Sport, and BBC Children’s - it gives thousands of 11-16-year-old students in the UK the chance to make their own reports for a real audience, using lesson plans, BBC learning materials, and the help of BBC mentors.

2016-09-16T11:36:30+00:00

Sharon Stokes sets out her vision for BBC School Report and the exciting developments for its eleventh year.

'We need to engage better with young people, and School Report is at the centre of that'

I have a confession to make. Until I took the job as head of School Report I’d never worked on the project before. I’d never volunteered to be a mentor or got involved with news day, apart from running a piece on a programme I was producing.

So why, after almost 17 years in the BBC, have I got involved? And why do I think other people should too – especially if they never have?

BBC School Report gives 11-16 year olds the chance to make the news for real

I was a teenager when I decided I wanted to be a journalist, after doing a week’s work experience on my local newspaper. I’ve always loved story-telling and meeting people, and finding out about their lives.

I’ve spent much of my career in radio – and have a real ion for personal stories. It’s real people that make news interesting.

Apart from being a journalist, I'm mum to a 14 year old and a 12 year old. Like most people their age they are never off their phones – yet never make a phone call! They’re the generation of Snapchat and Instagram, of ing and ing, and even creating their own content.

If I’m honest, they consume very little BBC content (although BBC Sport and Radio 1 still cut through with them both). They’re not unusual for their age.

We know the BBC needs to reach more young people. So how does the BBC engage this generation with our news content?

For the past 10 years School Report has engaged with thousands of 11-16 year olds. It’s a project which gives them a voice and helps to develop their skills. One the BBC’s objectives for this year, set by Director General Tony Hall, is to transform what we do for younger audiences.

And this is a particularly exciting time to engage with this age group. As I say, they don’t just consume content digitally – they create it too. They have plenty to say about the world they live in and the things affecting their lives, and they have stories to tell.

In every department I’ve spoken to since taking this job – they all know they need to engage better with young people. And I see School Report’s future as being at the centre of that. To help engage even more youngsters we’ve made some exciting changes to the project.

Firstly it is now year-round. We’ll be actively seeking stories from young people and engaging them in our content and big editorial moments throughout the school year – starting now.

We’re also opening up School Report so individual children can send us their stories ideas, outside of school. To help us to do this we are creating a School Report er so from next month young people, and schools can send us their ideas directly – as text, video from their phones, audio or pictures.

Later this year we are launching “School Report - The Pitch”. We’ll be inviting schools and young people to send us stories they feel are relevant to their lives, but they feel the BBC isn’t telling. These will be put before a of editors from programmes across the BBC who will each commission a story for their output, and work with that young person to bring their story to our audiences.

So why get involved in School Report? Because it’s all about finding amazing stories, inspiring a new generation and engaging them in what we do – while learning something from them. These youngsters are our future audience – and they could be our future colleagues. You might just help inspire another teenager to embark on a career in the media.

BBC School Reporters at Coventry questioned the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, today. The event was shown on the Victoria Derbyshire programme on BBC Two and the News Channel.

Read about BBC School Reporters meeting the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, in a blog by the BBC's economics editor Kamal Ahmed and about Mark Carney's toughest day, on the BBC news website.

BBC Outreach & Corporate Responsibility brings the BBC closer to its audiences - particularly those audiences we have identified as harder to reach - with face-to-face activity, community and staff volunteering.