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Students prove they have a nose for a story

Students from Ferryhill Business and Enterprise College have participated in a newswriting workshop after the college teamed up with Sunderland based PR Company, M.A.D Communications, to give the students a master class in how to write and publish news stories on March 27.

In a bid to give the pupils a greater understanding of the role of Public Relations within the media, the session allowed the group of 10 students to explore every aspect of identifying and creating a news story. The students, who will now be known as the Ferryhill News Hounds, will work together to identify and share news stories that are happening within their school.

The new initiative coincided with the BBC News’ eighth annual School Report News Day, which saw over 30,000 students from more than 1,000 schools participate in news reports and broadcasts from within their schools.

Stephanie Johnson, More Able and Talented Coordinator at Ferryhill, who helped organise the workshop, said: “The aim of the workshop was to not only provide the students with the opportunity to develop and finely tune their communication skills, but it was also the perfect chance for M.A.D Communications to introduce the students to the wide range of roles and potential careers available to them within the media industry.

“I want to establish a group of students who will act as the school’s News Hounds. Working as a team they will identify news stories in order to share Ferryhill’s success stories with the wider community. The News Hounds group will also expose the talents of our students who have an interest in communication.”

During the two-hour session, the participating students were taught the ins and outs of Public Relations, including how to structure and form an effective press release, as well as being made aware of industry standards.

Joe Dunn, 16, of Ferryhill Business and Enterprise College and one of the 10 students that took part said: “The workshop delivered by M.A.D gave us a deeper understanding of the media industry. It proved to be really valuable especially since I plan on studying Media at A-Level from September.”

Throughout the session, students worked together in teams to complete a variety of activities centred around PR and the media industry.

Marie Donnelly, 25, of Gateshead and Director of M.A.D Communications, said: “We were really impressed by the Ferryhill students and the way they worked together to tackle the tasks and activities we set them. The students showed a real eye for what makes a good story and, as a result, have developed a great understanding of how to tell that story.

“Hopefully the students will now take the skills they have learnt and apply them to real life scenarios – allowing them to generate lots of positive stories about the great things happening within their school, whilst also building their confidence and their own portfolios.

“We strongly believe that educating young people at an early age about how to communicate effectively within the media world is vital. The students were really engaged in the presentation and seemed to enjoy it as much as we did.”

After being taught by the team at M.A.D Communications, The Ferryhill News Hounds will now seek out newsworthy stories in and around their school, which they will then aim to get published in local newspapers, hopefully encouraging them to pursue a career in the media and allowing them to build up a portfolio of professional published work.

Kevin Brennan, Head Teacher of Ferryhill Business and Enterprise College, said: “M.A.D Communications delivered a two hour master class to educate our More Able and Talented students in how to write a well-structured and exciting press release.

“I am really pleased with how well the students responded to the workshop, they identified a number of great stories happening within Ferryhill. I am hoping that the News Hounds will help to raise the profile of the school’s exceptional achievements and help us share them with the wider community. “

After participating in the workshop the students gained a greater understanding of the wide variety of careers available to them within the media industry. It is hoped that exposure to less familiar media roles will initiate improvements within their existing school work, as well as potential studies in the near future.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Marie Donnelly .