Year 7 Making The News

By Lara P, Year 7

On 2nd December 2024, Year 7 had a whole day devoted to learning about journalism.  

We learned so much with the help of PGS’s very own Ms Hart, Teacher of English and Literacy Lead, Mark Waldron, Editor in Chief at The News, and the Year 12 Reading Mentors. 

To kick start the day, Ms Hart tested our current affairs knowledge with a quiz, which pupils got very enthusiastic about once they realised there were sweet prizes for the correct answers! Then we heard from our guest speaker, Mark Waldron, an experience journalist who has met numerous famous people such as Donald Trump, King Charles and Queen Camilla, Queen Elizabeth II, and many more significant people. 

Mark taught us what it is to be a journalist in the modern world, how to organise an article, and the five Ws and one H! (‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘why’, ‘when’, and ‘how’). He also taught us about the inverted pyramid of journalism and how our article can reach its target audience. Everything he spoke about was extremely interesting. I for one know that I have a new-found interest in journalism as a career.  

I asked him why he wanted to become a journalist. His answer was “I’ve always loved writing and telling stories.” 

We then spent the day in Houses with our Reading Mentors, creating our very own House newspapers, full of articles about our community.  

When questioning my friends they said, “we enjoyed everything, but I especially enjoyed Mark’s talk and getting to ask him questions.”  

Winners for the day were: 

Best Team Effort: Summers House 

Best Newspaper: Hawkey House 

Best Article: Seni – ‘My PGS Experience’ 

Best Photo and Caption: Barton House 

Overall, I think it was an excellent experience, and I hope we will see this event in years to come, so we can learn even more about journalism. As I have come to realise that journalism plays a huge part in today’s society – we would all be clueless without the news! 

Thank you for everyone who took part and helped with the organisation of this event: it was a day to remember.