“Always Something Fun Going On” - Year 11 Journalists Capture Life at NHEHS • Notting Hill & Ealing High School

“Always Something Fun Going On” – Year 11 Journalists Capture Life at NHEHS

19 January 2024 | Share:

Journalist Leader is one of several leadership roles Year 10s may apply for as part of the Year 10 Leadership Programme.

From November 2022 – November 2023, four Journalist Leaders captured life at Notting Hill from their point of view through articles which appeared on our website and were shared via our social media. Over the year, the team learned how to organise and research their work, new writing skills and styles, craft headlines, write for different audiences and source or create images to accompany their work.

As our team of Year 10 (now Year 11) Journalists came to the end of their time as journalists, we asked Ishita, Natasha, Isabella and Anika about their experiences as NHEHS Journalist Leaders.

Why did you sign up?

Ishita: I signed up to be a journalist leader because it looked like a fun way to get involved in school events and activities and help others understand what our school is about. I was also excited to get to learn more about the process of writing articles so that I could improve my writing skills and out of all the leadership roles offered to us in Year 10, this one appealed to me the most.

Natasha: I signed up because I wanted to take up a leadership role and I have a strong interest in writing. Last year at the careers fair I was also very interested in jobs involved with journalism so I thought this was a good opportunity to try it out.

Isabella: I signed up to be a journalist lead because I thought it would be a fun way to practice my writing skills and get more involved in school events!

Anika: I was interested in the idea of becoming a journalist, it was something that I had never thought about, so I wanted to give it a try.

What tasks were you set and how did you approach them?

Ishita: I had to interview a teacher once about the school play being put on called The Rover. It was my first article so I was very nervous and had no idea how to go about it, but eventually I got in touch with the drama teacher to schedule an interview. I wrote up questions to ask her and recorded the whole talk, which was really interesting. It took a while to write it up and edit it but I was really proud of the final result and it gave me an insight into how written interviews are produced.

Natasha: We had to write a range of articles – my first one was involved with last year’s production, The Rover, where I had to interview my friend Abi on her experiences of being an actor in it. I found this really fun as I took notes as she spoke to me (I had to write very quickly!) and then wrote it up formally later. This made me feel like a true journalist which I really enjoyed. I have also contributed write ups of many of our sporting fixtures and school trips.

Anika: We were given articles around every half term, I would try to write it as early as possible, but I somehow end up writing the majority of it the day before it’s due. However, I would definitely advise the next journalist leads to avoid the same mistake and write up the articles as early as possible.

What was the most fun article you wrote & why?

Ishita: I loved writing about our experiences on the Bronze DofE expedition as it was a very chaotic and eventful weekend so seeing it all written out made me realise how crazy some of the incidents that happened to us were. It was also fun to look back on the memories we made, even though some may be a bit less positive than others!

Natasha: I thoroughly enjoyed writing about the Berlin trip I went on in Christmas 2022 and my own personal experience representing Middlesex at the English School Athletics championships last July. As much as it is fun to research and find out new things about the school, I also was delighted to write about trips I can recount from my own perspective!

Isabella: My favourite article to write about was the Year 10 school ski trip because I had complete freedom over how I wanted to go about writing the article and looking back on the trip with my classmates was a wonderful way to sum up such an utterly incredible experience.

Was there anything you didn’t expect?

Ishita: I didn’t expect to find out how much is going on in the school. Every time there was a fun event or activity happening, I had to write about it and it turns out there were many! There was hardly a week when we couldn’t find anything to write about, because there was always something, whether we knew about it already or not.

Anika: I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did, I guess? I do not usually enjoy writing articles and any long essays, but when writing the articles on the school events, I enjoyed it quite a lot!

What have you learned that can be applied elsewhere?

Ishita: Learning how to spin every story into a positive one is something that will always come in handy. Even when I didn’t enjoy something much or I thought it wasn’t a big deal, making an article about it helped me see it in a different light and stretched my writing abilities. Being able to make even an insignificant experience sound fun and important is a valuable skill and will give you an advantage when writing CVs and applications.

Natasha: I have learned how to piece together an article on not too much information. For some of the articles I wrote it was quite hard to have lots to write about but I managed to try and tackle the challenge from another perspective of the story. This meant I could find more things to write about!

Isabella: I think the main thing I would take away would be the process that goes into an article before you can even write anything. You need to talk to the people involved, pick a few quotes, decided what to focus on and, I think most importantly, gain an understanding of the ‘spirit’ of an event before finally thinking about how to get that across to a reader.

Anika: I learned how to write in multiple different styles and how professional journalists structure their titles and descriptions to capture the reader’s attention through a great hook.

Do you have any tips for next year’s Journalist Leaders?

Ishita: Make the most of it! Use the role as an opportunity to get involved in new activities and talk to people about big achievements they have had or what they are interested in. It is lots of fun and you feel this great sense of achievement when you see an article that you wrote yourself up on a website for people to read.

Isabella: Just go for it! Being a journalist lead is particularly fun as you have almost complete freedom over what you write about and how you go about it – it can be anything from a traditional article to ’10 top tips’ or even a video!

Anika: Definitely write articles on topics that interest you, if it’s not interesting to you, you will have a hard time making it interesting for the readers. I would also recommend asking for help if you need it, sometimes getting a small push or a good idea can help kickstart the writing process.

If you would like to read any of our 2022-23 Year 10 Journalist Leaders’ 28 articles, please see the links below:

https://nhehs.gdst.net/venimus-vidimus-amavimus-classics-students-in-rome/

https://nhehs.gdst.net/8-pro-tips-for-your-silver-dofe-expedition/

https://nhehs.gdst.net/incredible-jellyfish-terrifying-y11-alexs-experience-swimming-the-english-channel/

https://nhehs.gdst.net/london-design-festival-inspires-y11-13-dt-students-for-gcse-a-level-projects/

https://nhehs.gdst.net/year-11-holds-gilmore-girls-themed-charity-event-for-action-breaks-silence/

https://nhehs.gdst.net/year-11-venture-to-wales-on-geography-trip/

https://nhehs.gdst.net/year-10-natasha-represents-middlesex-in-english-schools-national-athletics-finals/

https://nhehs.gdst.net/what-not-to-do-on-your-bronze-duke-of-edinburgh-expedition/

https://nhehs.gdst.net/business-brains-workshop-for-year-10/

https://nhehs.gdst.net/40-winners-at-nhehs-annual-sports-awards/

https://nhehs.gdst.net/peace-proscovia-inspires-at-nhehs-sports-awards/