2016 BBC News School Report

You will member on Thursday the BBC held the annual School Report. --

remember. Here are some of the best bits.

One day every year BBC News gets bigger and younger. Ten years ago

the BBC began an experiment with four schools and 30 students. It was

called school report. -- School Report. Good afternoon and welcome

to the BBC's School Report. Students aged 11 to 16 would get a chance to

make the news their way. Could you give us a taster of your favourite

rap? Everybody take a look at me, I've got street credibility. Schools

across the UK would be turned into newsrooms. School reporters

published stories on the website and across the BBC. What is your dream?

I want to see every child going to school. Ten years on, it has

involved more than 400,000 reporters for more than 2500 schools. We are

all former school reporters and we will take a look at what's been

going on this year. We are from a public school in Delhi. We brought

this monitor at with us and it shows the unhealthy levels of pollution.

We will look back at some of the highlights of the past ten years. My

mum thinks you are like a modern-day Mr Darcy. We will find out what it

means for some of those that have taken part. It felt so surreal to be

working with BBC. This is the story of school report in year ten. For

some of the 30,000 young people taking part this year, Newsday

started like this. -- news day. I just got up and I am so tired! It is

ten to 18 Warnie and I am waiting for a couple of school reporters who

are meeting someone very special for breakfast. -- to eight in the

morning. Good morning. It is an early start, but what are you doing

here today? We are interviewing Chris Evans for the BBC School

Report. Fantastic. It might be a silly question, but are you

excited? Of course! We've been preparing questions for a good two

weeks and we are ready to ask them and see if we can get some

interesting answers. Today we have two top students joining the team

behind the glass. Having said that, they are now in the studio. Good

morning! How are you doing? We are fabulous. When we were speaking on

the radio they told us there were over 10 million viewers, so that was

a bit shocking. Around 150 school reporters were ringed by the two the

BBC in London. It wasn't long before school reporters were getting down

to work. In here is the editorial meeting for Radio 4's world at one.

It is usually behind closed doors today we can go in. The CMA boss

went on to... These students to write an editorial meeting about

what stories should be in the programme at lunchtime. I found the

meeting very interesting. It was a very nice experience and I like to

do it again. School Report began ten years ago when the BBC invited four

schools to take part in a broadcasting experiment. The BBC

back in 2006, but it is still the case, was really concerned about

young people not engaging with news and not getting the chance to find

out about the world around them, current affairs. The thought was

that if you could somehow engage them in schools it might interest

them in news and current affairs and that might lead to an interest late

in life. The essence of School Report is giving young people a

voice and an audience. Dr Who makes a comeback... Students recognise the

value of having a real audience and this is a huge motivating factor, so

students take extra care because they know their bulletins, blogs and

articles will be viewed and read by many people. Another good thing

about it is developing student self-worth, confidence. For many

school reporters over the years, having a voice has meant covering

stories close to home. When the river burst its banks, over a

quarter of the Somerset land was flooded. Despite 50,000 sandbags...

And 62 pumps operating 24 hours a day, the force of nature was too

strong to hold back. This is one of the most deprived areas of the UK.

It is pretty rundown in places. Boarded-up shops and NT -- empty

houses. There is nothing out of the ordinary for pupils getting the bus

to school. These students happen to live on the other side and the

school journey involves more than just a bus. Sometimes local stories

produced by school reporters can capture national attention, as

Raymond, who lives in Hackney in east London, found out when he was

13 and the part in School Report. Some people do think of Hackney as a

rough area, a bad area where there's a lot of crime, so I thought it

would be interesting to talk about. As a young person in Hackney, how do

you feel about safety? People don't feel safe and comfortable. I wanted

to shed some light on the fact that crime wasn't that bad. Me living in

Hackney, as a 13-year-old as a time -- at the time, it wasn't as bad as

people thought. I am here with a former gang member who is now a

youth worker and is trying to make this a safer place. Showing young

people that there's more to life than what they see around them, in

terms of all of the negative influences. The local story went

national when Raymond appeared on the today programme on Radio 4. We

are joined by one young man who has been taking part, Raymond. Can you

explain the problem how difficult the problem is? Crime in Hackney

isn't really bad. If you get involved in it it is hard to get

out, but if you might do business, choose the right friends, it is all

right. The whole experience was amazing, having that experience at

that age. -- mind your own business. Because of that I've considered

going into media in the future. On news day this year more than 1000

schools across the UK took part. The BBC in Salford have had around 75

school reporters. BBC radio Manchester... This is probably one

of the most important buttons. Back in London, these students are

speaking to schools all over the country. With help from some friends

from Radio one. I am hearing the news gathering area at broadcasting

house in London. It is incredibly busy. We have students calling from

all over the country and students are also visited by a very special

guest, Greg James. Hello, Greg. How are you finding things today? Me and

Adam are very busy. We are calling some schools to find out how they

are getting on. We're calling on particular school. How is it going?

We're through. Just finding out how they are getting on, our students

are getting involved. We have another student. What have you been

doing with the phones? I've just been finding out some information.

Have you found any interesting stories about schools? On school got

a visit from the BBC Radio. They called into congratulate them for

what they were doing, which was a nice surprise. Five floors up in

school reporters are driving their desks at radio one Xtra. How did you

find that? Controlling the buttons at the beginning? That was easy! On

a scale of one to ten, how easy? Nine. So are you saying everyday I

do an easy job? Sort of. Students also report about their own lives.

Hello. We are teenagers in 2013, but we think it would be easier to be a

teenager in the 1980s rather than now. No one told me about a costume

change! Today we are asking the question, how could he first century

teenagers are affected by body image issues. We are more likely to forget

our school books they am as Khare. But is our fixation with image

harming our self-esteem? What psychological effect does

selfies have on young people? Positive and negative. Most young

people like taking selfies. But as long as they aren't taken too

seriously. We've been reporting for BBC School Report. The question many

school reporters ask is can young people live above social media? Is

not much research on the effect social media is having on young

people, what we want to see what all this screen time is doing to our

brains. So, we decided to go cold turkey for one week. When the BBC

approached us, I was very excited. This is the first day. I'm quite

unsure about what I should replace the time I use social media with. I

think my stress is going to grow and get bigger. Only three out of nine

of us lasted the whole week. I think I felt disappointed in myself,

because a lot of my friends did go the week. I couldn't do it. But

don't think young Gursel is a test with social media, as School Report

revealed. In Kenya were visited. We go back to the good old days of

letter writing. I am writing to a friend of mine. Just as a hello,

because it has been a long time. The story was broadcast on BBC world and

their World Service. That introduction to the School Report

back in 2010 wasn't exactly global news. I did a story about my dad

winning a competition to go on England football bus. Looking back

on it, I think, why on earth did I pick that? But it didn't hold her

back. Far from it. Lauren is 19. Now she works as a broadcast assistant

at the BBC in London. I am back at William Howard school, the one they

left three years ago, the meat and students were taking part in BBC

News school report. How do you experience your -- how do you value

your experience the School Report? That's the reason why I wanted to

join the BBC. It gave me insight into what it was like to work for

such a big News Corporation and it was School Report that help me

decide that I wanted to become a journalist. BBC journalist Jane Hill

has been involved with School Report from the start. One of the young

people I spoke to say, I am enjoying the writing, but I am also really

enjoying having a go at all of the equipment and machinery. She said, I

would never have a chance to even look at this machinery and try to

learn understand how it works. I thought, that's fantastic! Just

because I am a journalist I can't assume everyone wants to write or

broadcast for a career. Baby P want to go into the technical side and be

a sound recordist, or a cameraman. -- maybe they want. Over the year,

school reporters have done a great job. At the height of the Arab

Spring students interviewed students in Tunisia. Hello. Can you describe

what it was like being at home when the revolution was happening? It was

really scary. Guns fired, pupils are very afraid. They just want

democracy, but it was very horrid. Equality.

There are school reporters all over the world reporting stories to a

global audience. Hello, we are students at a school injuries.

Unique of Jewish -Arab coexistence. We want to show you how it works.

Follow us. In this class, one teacher speaks in Hebrew and the

other in Arabic. It helps to remove barriers and create friendship from

an early age. Coexistence is a daily challenge, but the alternative is

worse. The story of one extraordinary teenager who has a --

inspired many around the world gave one reported the opportunity to

travel to the UN. The story begins at a school in Birmingham. Holly was

in year nine when she became interested in a Pakistani girl who

was shot either Taliban after campaigning for girls to be

educated. I started looking at who she was and what she had done. I

came across the blog she did and it is great to see that from an early

age she was an advocate of female education and the right to equality.

And so after that we started getting more interested, started writing

reports on staff and then BBC School Report got back to us and said we

could get involved. She got the chance to go to New York to report

on a speech Malala was making at the UN. Every girl, who raised their

voice for their rights. Wholly interviewed Gordon Brown, the

UN special envoy to education. What is education Mata? Because it is the

only way people can do to themselves. Straight after the

interview, we met Malala right after her speech, we were in awe at the

opportunity. Holly even reported live from New York. That was quite

some speech today, were you in the audience? Yes, we were. We thought

it was really good, and there were a few of us watching. She said quite a

few inspirational quotes, like the peaceful and love everyone. I felt

quite privileged that I was one of the people to be able to see her and

hear her voice and speak. This year, students are covering another World

News story, the war in Syria. And they are doing it in their own way.

We have been linking up with children in Syria who have had to

leave their homes because of the conflict. We have suffered from any

problems during the last few years. We have become friends with students

in Damascus as part of the project. We find that their lives are very

different from ours. They told us that when they come home from school

they say goodbye to their mothers as if they will never see them again.

They keep having to move homes and schools and don't have proper books

like us. I have changed three houses in different places, so I have

changed three schools. Armed with insights into the lives of young

people in Syria they took their questions to the international

developer and secretary. Young people in Syria don't have enough

desks and chairs or access to technology. What is the UK doing to

help them? One thing the UK has really been focused on is trying to

get children back into school. School report sometimes throws up

moments you would never see anywhere else. They can be revealing. Why

anti- wearing a tie? 51% of the pictures on the internet of you

don't have a tie on. They can be spontaneous. How am I doing? , I am

feeling great! They can be unexpected. We will be reporting on

love your toilet week in school. We will get it right, I don't know

where this microphone is going. Or they can be downright weird. I was

wondering, could you give us a taster of your favourite rap? It was

a strange question. After the video went viral, I thought I was famous,

everyone will know about it. Public Enemy, Tinie Tempah, they are all

great. My dad is probably still more thrilled that I am, he keeps talking

about it two years on. In 2012, events in the UK caught the

attention of the rest of the world. School reporters were there again to

cover the story. The Olympic flame arrives in the UK this evening on

board a special flight from Athens. This is the actual tarmac where the

Olympic flame will land. It will be travelling for 70 days around the

entire UK. It felt so surreal to be working with the BBC. My gosh.

Fantastic access, you have spoken to everyone who is important! Did you

enjoy that? Yes, it was great to see everything behind the scenes and see

the preparations we were talking about. I never had much confidence,

so to look at myself talking at the camera, that footage was then going

to be on the news, I was really quite proud at the same time of

being weeded out. A lot of reporters cover the Olympics, some even

interviewed athlete. Since you joined the academy, you haven't

really live the life of a normal teenager. I think you miss out, you

make some sacrifices. You miss out on going out on the weekends and

things, but I am completely happy with missing those little things to

be in a position I'm in now. For one school reporter, the Paralympics...

This is my best friend Charlie. He has cerebral palsy, and first got

involved in the project when he and his able-bodied friend told their

story of playing wheelchair tennis together. I think it has been really

good, was not only can Abbey play with me, she can come to my world

and see what tennis does for me and how much I enjoy it. When the

Paralympic Games began, Charlie was chosen to be the official school

report blogger. It was absolutely amazing, because I haven't ever done

anything like that before, and because I was quite young I felt

like I had quite a big sense of responsibility. That wasn't all. We

do want to hear from Charlie... He then shared his experiences on five

live. Hi Charlie, good to see. You have cerebral palsy and use a

wheelchair, so how have you found this event? It has been great, to be

honest. It has done a lot for disabled people and disabled sport,

and I hope a lot stems off from these games. I am really proud. I

think subconsciously, it has made me want to get involved in journalism

as I have got older. It has a really positive effect on me. One of the

most important jobs of a reporter is holding the powerful to account.

School reporters have a long history of asking tough questions. In 2007,

School reporters had a chance to ask questions to Tony Blair. Thousands

of children my age have died in the war in Iraq. This is too high a

price to pay for getting rid of Saddam Hussein? Just before I came

here I was speaking to the PM in Iraq. What he would say is that the

people who are doing the killing are small minority and they have to be

stopped. In 2012, the DJ had the kind of day political reporters can

only hope for. You'll make it was really the fracking date. Good

afternoon. She got to talk to all three main party leaders. One after

another. My school is a terrible place, with cracks in the walls

covered with paper and last week we flooded. What are you going to do

for Rascal and many others? We are going to spend money on new capital

and new buildings for schools. It sounds like yours is a deserving

case and perhaps I will have to look at your particular school and see

what the plans are. A year later, she followed up the pledge. I

received a letter from the PM to verify that our school has been

placed on the priority school building programme. Despite this,

one year on, our school hasn't changed. I felt proud that I have

managed to get to where I was, that I managed to represent the school in

a way and to get a voice for the students in the school. Now, the

school is being rebuilt. In 2013, School reporters met a leading

politician and dared to ask a question on everybody's lips. Do you

want to be PM? I am very lucky to be Mayor of London. And then another

school reporter asked him. What do you want to be? What you want to be?

What is this? I felt a bit awkward, because I asked him twice that he

didn't answer. Until he finally got an answer. Genuinely, of course I

do. To get that out of him was a really big accomplishment for me.

You should be on Newsnight. He should be on Newsnight! This year at

the BBC students are putting the finishing touches to their news

bulletin. Before they know it, it is two o'clock. This is BBC News School

report, I'm Matthew. Welcome to the BBC News School report 2016. The

headlines. The Duchess of Cambridge meets School reporters in

Edinburgh, we will be what it was like to work it a real royal. School

reporters all over the UK are publishing their stories. Fer we

have had approaches from Brussels city working with us in the last two

years, part of a project funded by the football league called female

football development. Some people have families who work in Canada. My

father is an electrician who gets most of his work from the plant. It

is not a very nice place to work at the moment because everyone is a bit

worried for their job. Waking up in the morning is not easy for most

teenagers. We usually stay up late, so are we really getting enough

sleep? We are reporting from BBC News School report.

I am here in the newsgathering area and as you can see, all the students

have gone home and that is it for School report 2016. You have been

watching the highlights from ten years of school report. To find out

more about the project, go to BBC