Oriel pupils make the headlines

YOUNGSTERS learned that news can come from virtually anywhere - including their own experiences learning about newspaper reporting!Mercury reporter Dominic Bareham told Year 8 children at Oriel High School in Gorleston that news stories could be any current event that interests people, such as talks given by Dominic and also Rosie Walker from the Nelson Museum in Great Yarmouth to help the children with their studies.

YOUNGSTERS learned that news can come from virtually anywhere - including their own experiences learning about newspaper reporting!

Mercury reporter Dominic Bareham told Year 8 children at Oriel High School in Gorleston that news stories could be any current event that interests people, such as talks given by Dominic and also Rosie Walker from the Nelson Museum in Great Yarmouth to help the children with their studies.

Dominic and Rosie visited on flexi-Friday, a fortnightly event where pupils' learning is brought to life by people involved in different professions. On a previous occasion, Norfolk police visited to make a fictional arrest for a murder mystery enactment.

The eager journalism students, aged 12 and 13, have been learning about the science of news writing, particularly how to judge the factual accuracy of a story or whether the reporter has put a particular slant on the news coverage to make it appeal to their readership's tastes.

To help them with their task, the children have been comparing how the same news story has appeared in different newspapers and whether the different versions had been “spun”.

Science teacher Angie Cator said: “They will pick out six parts of a story from a particular newspaper and decide whether the science of it stands. We will ask the pupils to decide for themselves if it is uncertain or whether it is scientifically true.”

Rosie's visit was to teach the children more about life on Nelson's ship, including the health and diets of those on board.