July 17, 2023 01:52pm
Aspiring journalists at The Portsmouth Academy enjoyed an inspiring workshop focused on life as a reporter and how to break into the industry.
The event, which took place at Portsmouth Grammar School, welcomed the Editor-in-Chief of The News, Mark Waldron, to talk to pupils from schools around Portsmouth.
While talking about his personal experiences, he touched on the skills and resilience it requires to be a reporter and where the job can take you. He also asked the reporters of the future to guess the most famous people he had met.
The pupils were then given the challenge of producing articles about their school and community, which appeared within a special supplement printed in The News.
Students were asked about what interests them about being journalists. "I like reading books and writing stories about people, so journalism is another version of doing something I already love. It's nice to write about real things happening in the world and make a difference by writing about them," said Chris.
In response to the most interesting parts of the day, Jake said, "I liked meeting students from the other schools and asking questions related to my own research, as well as finding out about their article."
Miss Fox, who attended the trip with the pupils, said the session was an effective way to introduce young people to the world of journalism.
She said: "This was a fantastic opportunity for students passionate about writing to discover what it means to work in journalism. Having the editor of The News, Mark Waldron, come in to present the workshop gave valuable insight to everyone in the room since he started out as a journalist but also has experience in national, rather than just local news.
"Students were eager to discover the thoughts and opinions of those in their community to form the foundation of their article. It was brilliant to see how passionate they were about their chosen topics, and being able to have their voices published was extremely validating for them. This is something they will be able to cherish forever, and something they should be very proud of."