The school newspaper – if it’s anything like a university newspaper – can be an errant affair: all multicoloured paperclips and last-minute photocopying. Articles, if apathy allows, range from the rancid to the subliminal. Yes, the media has taught me cynicism well.
All of this just shows why school newspaper should be run by the students, and not be overworked teachers. Or, rather, that the a school newspaper run in an efficient and creative manner by responsible young people is an inspirational boon to an English department, and to a school.
www.presspublisher.net is – unbelievably – a free online newspaper. Its power comes in the way that it allocates different privileges to different users. In a dry way what that means is your can lend apt prestige to the roles of editors and subs, allow pupils to characterise their departments (sport/news/features etc) and delegate real and controlled responsibility for content.
We have just exploring how to use this with a year 8 class. Note the lack of proof-reading here. Pupil comments to follow…
Our testing below shows this:
