Read all about it! The Guardian News & Media Education Centre in London provides workshops in Media, History and English for both Primary and Secondary students.
The Guardian News and Media Education Centre runs a range of educational activities in its purpose-built classroom within The Guardian newspaper offices at Kings Place, London.
There are a variety of free whole-day workshops where students create their own newspaper front page, edit videos and learn code, as well as study historical topics such as civil rights in the USA and British journalism in World War One.
The Education Centre can accommodate up to 30 students at a time. Apple iMac computers and specially-designed software help students to engage with and learn from the news and The Guardian archives.
Primary school workshops
All school workshops are free of charge. Full day workshops run from 10am to 2.30pm and two hour after-school workshops can start from 3.15pm.
Workshops suitable for Key Stage 2 students include Make a Newspaper Front Page; Victorians; Newspaper Editing; and Science and Environment in the News.
In Make a Newspaper Front Page, students become reporters and editors. They will encounter the real-life experience of producing the front page of a newspaper – everything from writing and editing news stories to creating headlines, and selecting and captioning pictures.
In Victorians, meanwhile, the group will research, write and edit their own Victorian newspaper front page using original Guardian and Observer news stories as well as fact files and reference books on a range of events. Pupils will work in pairs, to a deadline.
Newspaper Editing is an after-school workshop and lasts for two hours. The session will sharpen pupils’ editing skills as they subedit current news stories, write headlines and learn production techniques. They will also produce a first and second edition of a newspaper front page.
Secondary school workshops
News workshops for Key Stage 3, 4 and 5 pupils include the aforementioned Make a Newspaper Front Page. This workshop is adapted for older pupils by added elements like learning how editorial decisions are reached, and how the news is made.
Another workshop called Editorial Teams is suitable for Key Stages 4 and 5, and replicates the atmosphere of a real newsroom. Students will work in teams and respond to the day’s breaking news stories to produce a four page newspaper.
Within their groups, individuals will take on the range of different reporting and editing roles necessary to create a newspaper. They will research and write current news stories, subedit each other’s work, write headlines, take on picture editing and learn production techniques.
Digital and multimedia workshops are available at the Education Centre, too. Coding and journalism, for example, is suitable for Key Stage 3 students and gives the pupils an insight into the work of the digital development department in supporting journalism.
During the workshop the group will be introduced to programming languages to structure and design a quiz through HTML and CSS. They will also learn how to code their quiz in JavaScript to make it interactive.
A Video Editing workshop focusing on environment and climate change can be used to support Science and Media studies in Key Stages 3, 4 and 5. Students will create a short film on the theme of climate change, using documentary footage filmed by The Guardian video producers.
This workshop will provide an insight into what it is like to be a video editor at The Guardian; students will be introduced to editing techniques and how to use them effectively to tell a story using film.
Teachers can choose from several History workshops including Women and the Vote; First World War; and Civil Rights in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s. All of these are suitable for Key Stages 3, 4 and 5.
Civil Rights in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s, as an example, sees pupils access contemporary news reports relating to civil rights and race relations in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s. The reports cover a wide range of events, developments and key legislation of the period. Students will work in pairs to create their own newspaper front page depicting this turbulent era.
Further information
Teachers who’d like to book a school visit to The Guardian News and Media Education Centre for 2017 can express their interest by filling in a form on The Guardian’s website.
There are a number of downloadable resources available to support a visit to the centre; these can be used before or after a school visit. These resources include a guide to how The Guardian newspaper is actually made, archived newspaper collections, and information about roles and careers available at a newspaper.
Teachers can contact the centre by calling 020-3353 3306 or e-mailing educationcentre@theguardian.com.
For further information visit www.theguardian.com/gnmeducationcentre.
