Cullybackey College goes live with the BBC

Included in the photo taken inside the BBC Media Bus are teacher in charge, Mrs Judy Smyth and School Report team: Charlie McCready, Ashley Johnstone, Chloe Jamison, Amy Gilmer, Zachary Wilson, Rebecca Kyle, Kiera Launder, Aaron Munce and Sam Hutchinson

The school was one of only twelve groups specially selected across Northern Ireland, to receive a master class from Julia Paul, a political journalist and writer.

The pupils were guided through what stories are deemed ‘news worthy’ and the importance of audience after which they put the theory into practice. A series of headlines, interviews, and vox pop were filmed, with camera angles and sound tricks being demonstrated by a BBC technical crew.

The media bus was kitted out with a small green screen, a mini radio suite and computers equipped with video editing software. As a result pupils were able to get creative and experiment with different editing techniques.

With their deadline looming, pupils felt the pressure in putting the finishing touches to their bulletin but managed to compile their stories in time before ‘going live’.

The School Reporters thrived in the news room environment, demonstrating their ability to work well as a team as well as showing off their individual journalistic skills.