Making the News Competition 2006

THE SEARCH IS ON... Pupils across the country are being encouraged to try their hand at journalism thanks to an innovative online tool, Making The News, where they can enter national competition and win some fantastic prizes. Making The News, created and hosted by the Regional Broadband Consortia, allows pupils to research, write and publish news reports, interviews, articles and flash-blogs online. With advice and tools to create fully designed 'newspapers' and tips on writing styles, Making The News encourages creativity, communication and literacy skills. For the second year running, the RBCs have launched 'The Making The News National Competition'. The competition aims to showcase the best budding journalists in schools throughout the UK by giving pupils the chance to write their own news material based around ten categories.

The categories range from, Best Local News Story and Best Field Trip to Best Personal Story and Best Overseas Report. Schools can register now online (see link below) and enter their news stories from the 1st December to the 16th December 2006 via the MTN competition website. The competition has been designed by the RBCs to support lesson activity while encouraging enhanced, extended creative learning experiences. There are three age bands to give pupils of all ages equal chance to shine in their chosen category; Age 10 and Under, 11 to 14 Years and Age 15 and Above. Jeff Howson, Making The News project manager, explains; 'Making The News is a fantastic resource which all schools can get involved with.

The competition will be the ideal time for people to join in. Pupils who use the resource find many different benefits, from increased confidence after interviewing people, improved research and communication skills to collating and presenting information at a professional standard. Seeing their work published online also provides a real sense of purpose which is an excellent motivator and adds to pupils' enthusiasm and imagination. It will be great if local schools can work with local tv, newspapers and radio to learn from their expertise and find out more about the world of Media.' Schools can submit individual or small team entries for all categories, which are required between the 1st and 16th December for judging week beginning 19th December, 2006. The winners will be announced at BETT 2007 and prizes include individual awards and hardware/software prizes for schools. Making The News is free to use and the competition can be accessed at About Making The News: Making the News (MTN) is a free online publishing system for education, enabling news to be published, broadcast and accessed over the World Wide Web. MTN is a highly innovative, motivational and easy-to-use system that allows you to publish a variety of media (text, images, audio, animation and video) online.

The MTN project, which is supported by the Department for Education and Skills, has been created for all England's Regional Broadband Consortia (RBCs) by the East of England Broadband Network (E2BN). The MTN website and technology, which was designed by the Open University's Knowledge Media Institute's Centre for New Media, supports and extends young people's creative learning and education across the curriculum. It is a truly inclusive, creative tool that encourages young people of all ages, to develop and use skills to publish their work. As an anytime/anywhere publishing tool, with no cost for schools or pupils, MTN supports the development of teaching and learning outside traditional classroom constraints. Your school can have their own MTN website by registering the school details online (http://mtn.e2bn.net). About the Regional Broadband Consortia: There are ten Regional Broadband Consortia across the country. These consortia are groups of LEAs and are key players in the procurement of Internet services, broadband infrastructure and content for LEAs and schools in their regions.

The RBCs expertise means that they are able to provide advice, support and resources to help schools optimise their use of the broadband network with access to large amounts of free content, lesson plans and projects. They also have a role in linking together to form the National Education Network and promote the development of content for broadband networks. The 10 RBCs have close working links also with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. For further information on the RBCs visit: http://broadband.ngfl.gov.uk/ MTN competition categories: Best local news story Best feature on any topic Best personal story Best food report Best field trip Best environmental story Best overseas report Best ICT story Best music report Best education story Key dates: Competition registration ? October and November 2006 Competition entries ? 1st-16th December 2006 Competition judging ? w/b 19th December 2006 Competition awards ? 10th January 2007, BETT, Olympia, London For further information on the project and press information contact: Jeff Howson, National Project Manager E: jeffrhowson@gmail.com W: http://mtncomp.e2bn.net M: 07765253028