Launch of MTN at Lakeside, Cumbria

The aim of the day was to explore the locality in search of stories to act as exemplar material for schools looking at MTN for the first time.

The event was based at The Lakeside Hotel where we were made very welcome by the owner, Mr Neville Talbot, and the Conference and Business Manager, Kate Willock.  Tim Farron MP visited the MTN launch and gave a lot of his time to the pupils, looking closely at what they were achieving and being interviewed for their cameras.  You can watch the interview with Tim Farron MP here and the interview with Cathy Burrows, from the Aquarium of the Lakes here (look out for the talking fish!).

We recruited teams of highly motivated students, acting as ambassadors for their schools, who could make the most of the multimedia opportunities offered by Making the News.  Teams from four secondary schools in the South Lakes area explored The Aquarium of the Lakes, Windermere Lake Cruises, Brockhole - the Lake District National Park Visitor Centre -  and Fell Foot (National Trust).  We were extremely well supported by all these local establishments and were made very welcome indeed.

We also were pleased to have the involvement of a local primary school who entered into the spirit of the day by dressing up as Victorians and travelling by steam train from Haverthwaite to Lakeside.  They thought carefully about how Victorians would have travelled and had packed lunches with carefully chosen Victorian ingredients.

The students' objective was to make the most of the multimedia aspects of Making the News and they used video, photography and interview skills to research and write their stories.  This would involve speaking and listening skills, planning and drafting skills and high level communication skills.

Read the news stories from the day here

Evaluation

The students all enjoyed themselves immensely and everyone was impressed with their conduct and the high level of journalism they achieved. 

The teachers working with the teams commented on the focus on task and the social skills needed when talking to members of staff at the places visited and the members of the public who were interested and supportive.

The feedback from the staff and members of public was highly complimentary too and again the social skills being demonstrated were commented upon.

More academic skills demonstrated at this event include:

• speaking and listening
• discussion
• planning and drafting
• written composition
• photographic composition
• headline writing
• sub-editing
• objective and supportive criciticism of each other's work
• media awareness and uses of multimedia
• working with digital images and digital video
• working with adults - teaching and non-teaching!
• working with pupils from other schools
• working with members of the public (under supervision)
• citizenship and heritage issues (LDNPA and NT)
• conservation, nature and environment issues (Aquarium of the Lakes)
• local tourism industry, careers opportunities (Lakeside Hotel)
• local heritage tourism (Lake Cruises, Steam Railway)

Links

The Lakeside Hotel

The Aquarium of the Lakes

Lakeside and Haverthwaite Steam Railway

Lake District National Park Authority

National Trust

Windermere Lake Cruises

Below are some images capturing the atmosphere of the day:

The team at Brockhole

Reporters travelling on Swan work on their stories:

Interviewing retired teachers

Travelling up Windemere in style, on Swan, looking for stories

The team who travelled on Swan with the Captain

A close-up encounter with an otter at the Aquarium of the Lakes

Interviewing Mr Farron and Mr Talbot over lunch at the hotel

Journalist at work

Media teams hard at work