Whitworth young reporters’ first sporting newsletter printed

Young reporters have put together the first edition of The Whitworth Whistle to capture sporting news from Whitworth Community High School.

Editor was Josh Dews, now in Year 11, along with lead photographer John Buckley and lead designer Kayden Garrity.

A further team of three sub-editors and six journalists generated copy for the 12-page newsletter, which was printed in school and given to every student.

The covered not just sport in school, but also national and international competitions and puzzles.

Josh said: “From Easter, we met every Wednesday morning before school and in form to discuss where everyone was up to, collect the reports and decide who was going to cover what events that were coming up.

“We had intended to cover sports day, but the weather was against us, so instead we did a big spread about the Colour Run that was held to raise money for a new school mini-bus.

“Teachers and students were asked to put forward a name for the newsletter and the news team then picked the title. The cover was designed by Oliver Riley.

“Declan Nuttall was our feature writer and he interviewed our new Headteacher Mr Oliver and also made predictions about the Euros.

“Everyone got involved in the layout and deciding what goes where and we are already working on the second edition.

“What has pleased me most is the feedback we have been given once it was printed. Everyone really liked it.”

Josh is a keen photographer and took some brilliant photographs of the Colour Dash which were used in the newsletter and in the local press.

After GCSEs he is planning to study at Rochdale Sixth Form and is interested in becoming an astrophysicist, a physics teacher or a child psychologist.

He said: “I am glad I was involved in the project. I am glad we put such a good team together and that we were able to get it printed and it turned out so big.”

To give potential new rookie reporters a start, Year 7s went along to the England V Argentina tennis competition at the AO Arena in Manchester and were asked to write an account to see if they want a place in a new team to produce the next issue.

National sports journalist Gareth Walker, who runs LiteracyKicks, delivered a workshop to start the students off and called in during the following weeks to give them advice as the newsletter progressed.