A former regional press journalist has been helping budding journalists aged just ten cover a children’s book festival which started yesterday.

The youngsters have been appointed as the official reporters at the four-day Manchester festival, with their stories set to appear in the Manchester Evening News and other publications.

Rachel Broady, a former features editor at MEN sister paper the Manchester Metro News, has taught the youngsters reporting skills so they can cover the book festival, which runs until Sunday.

The twelve young reporters are pupils at three primary schools in North Manchester, some who were chosen for being gifted at writing and others were thought to need a confidence boost.

Freelance journalist Rachel has 19 years experience in the newspaper industry, including time at the News of the World, and now runs journalism workshops in schools and colleges.

She said: “They are natural journalists, proving themselves during training to be incredibly talented when it comes to interview skills and writing entertaining copy.

“They are inquisitive and know which questions their readers would like the answers to, as well as how to ask follow-up questions during interview to ensure they are accurate and have all the information they need.

“They are calm under pressure and don’t mind asking awkward questions – they could be our future journalists if they want to be.”

The youngsters will interview Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, the festival director, as part of the event, along with other authors who are attending.

And they will also appear on the BBC’s Newsround programme, interviewing author Michael Rosen at a special tea party.

Another team of pupils from two secondary schools make up a Twitter team covering the festival and they will transform their tweets into a piece of performance poetry, with the help of poet and journalist Kate Fox.

Comments

Journo (05/07/2010 10:28:19)
Hope they make good interviewers because in my experience anyone under the age of 15 sucks at being an interviewee!