DOES your school have a team of roving reporters?
If the answer is yes, then why not nominate them for one of our top awards?
The Journal has once again teamed up with its sister paper, the Evening Gazette, and associate sponsor, Northumbrian Water, to bring you the North East School Awards.
The popular campaign is now in its fifth year and celebrates the hard work and achievements of our region’s students and teachers.
One of the most popular categories is the School Newspaper Award, which aims to highlight the fantastic skills of the next generation of reporters, photographers and designers.
Last year’s winner was Farringdon Community Sports College in Sunderland, which has had a school newspaper since July 2006.
Called Farra News, it is written, designed and produced on the school’s site and contains all the school’s important events, as well as horoscopes, cartoons, jokes, puzzles, reviews for books, theatre and games, and fashion features.
Pupil, and budding reporter, Amy-Marie Cuthbertson said: “We are proud of our newsletter and think it looks great.
“Over the years, we have created a house style that we hope makes it look professional.
“We have also learnt to put a box in colour to ‘lift’ an article. We decided as a team not to put names on the articles, as it’s a complete team effort, but we do each usually have a regular feature to write as we wait for news to come in.”
The North East Schools Awards are open to all primary, secondary and special schools from across the region, from Northumberland to Teesside, and everywhere in between.
The campaign is also being sponsored by Nexus and the Centre for Life.
There are nine awards in total, four for school projects and five for staff.
All project award winners will be presented with a £1,000 grant for their school, a trophy and certificate at a special ceremony in July.
Individual winners will also get a trophy and certificate.
The categories are: Sustainable School Award; Active Community Award; School Newspaper Award; Healthy School Award; Headteacher of the Year; Support Staff of the Year; Inspirational Primary School Teacher; Inspirational Secondary School Teacher and Caretaker of the Year.
The awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, July 14 at the Centre for Life, in Newcastle’s Times Square.The closing day for entries is Monday, June 6. For more information and to enter online log on to www.journallive.co.uk/schoolawards or www.gazettelive.co.uk/schoolawards.
Alternatively, call Jennifer Cook, event manager, on 0191 204 3310 or e-mail jennifer.cook@ncjmedia.co.uk
