Journalism by Journalists

On Monday 24th June a handful of students from four different schools assembled at the hosting school The Portsmouth Grammar School (PGS) to take part in a one day Youth News Event. Once having received a presentation all about journalism and its many uses, the students started to write their own articles about current affairs in their local community.

During the talk from the Editor in Chief of the Star and Crescent, Mark Waldron, the students were immersed within the new possibilities of future careers. After learning that journalism is a much more social topic than most people would assume straight away, the pupils discovered that pursuing journalism means you can meet a whole new breadth of people, varying in culture, age, and lifestyle. 

Whilst the young writers chased some of their first articles to the root of success, working in groups or alone, we gathered the opinions of various teachers taking part. A teacher reinforced the benefits of the event by saying that: “The way we report on the news is changing, it's important to learn reporting skills from experts.” During other discussions about the exciting profession, pupils were enlightened as to how journalism is quite the pillar in our society, informing people what is happening in the world, and even locally. Without it nothing could be fully confirmed as true, or even reliable.

To end the day students remarked that: “The event was most eye opening and intriguing to a fresh generation of potential future writers.”  It was an extremely useful day that the pupils will hold close to them forever. Students hope the event will be repeated in the near future as it was most helpful to their range of understanding.

Written by PGS Pupils; Ella K, Grace K, and Lily-Rose D