School Newspaper of The Year Competition
1st May 2019
Thank you so much to everyone who entered the First News School Newspaper of the Year 2018-19 Awards. We had a huge number of fantastic entries and we enjoyed reading every entry!
We will be running the competition again this year, so keep writing, editing, finding stories and taking photographs for your school newspaper.
In the past this competition has been hugely successful, so we are anticipating some fantastic entries. We want to reward inspiring, creative young minds who appreciate the importance of news.
When the competition opens in May, we will be accepting newspapers from the start of the Autumn term, so we encourage you all to get writing and coordinating!
Like this year, there will be five categories for these awards, open to all schools where students have created their own newspaper, newsletter or web pages to report news to their school community at any time from September 2019 to June 2020. The categories are:
1) Primary School Newspaper
2) Secondary School Newspaper
3) Special School Newspaper
4) Innovative news project – eg, news website or blog, news podcasts or broadcasts, writing for a local newspaper etc.
5) ‘NewsWise’ Editorial Team – Do you have a hard-working, collaborative team putting your school news together who deserve this award?
The winners will not only have the honour of receiving the title of First News School Newspaper of the Year, but the winner of each category will receive a magnificent trophy for their school and feature in a First News Special Report! We will announce the winners in June in First News.
See this year’s winners below!
Primary School winner
The Ashcott Compass
Ashcott Primary School’s very professional newspaper is created half-termly to inform, interest and excite their readers. The team have an editorial conference to decide on the news they need to report on. They then meet at lunchtime to investigate, interview, write and take photographs to meet their deadline. The more experienced journalists support new recruits in the team, and they take it in turns to be the edition’s guest editor.
Secondary School winner
The Stretford Chronicle
Stretford High School’s impressive school newspaper started in December 2018 and is about to publish its fifth edition. The 17 students in the team work tirelessly to report events taking place in schools across the country and the world. They also campaign on issues they feel strongly about, such as the environment, and lead change within their school. The Chronicle is entirely written and designed by students, and is proving a great success with its readers and the wider community. We were very impressed with how accessible it is and relevant to all age groups within the school.
Editorial team of the year
DCGS Chatter
The lively voice of the editorial team at Dane Court Grammar School shines through in their termly newspaper.
This large team of 73 people work very hard investigating stories, involving their readers and creating their engaging newspaper. They describe their club as “one very big, happy family” and since they started in January 2019 have had an amazing 12,500 downloads of their newspaper.
Primary School runner-up
Portway Post
Primary School runner-up
The Ralphie Reporter
Primary School runner-up
Fernhurst Future
Secondary School runner-up
Beckfoot Buzz
Secondary School runner-up
The Kilt
Secondary School runner-up
AX News
