NATIONAL journalists including from The Guardian and The Daily Mail travelled up to Skipton from London to take part in workshops aimed at helping schools and colleges produce their own newspapers and magazines and also to encourage students into joining the world of media.

The first Shine Roadshow, organised by the Shine School Media Awards, was held at Ermysted’s Grammar School, which in the summer either won or was highly commended in several categories in the annual Shine awards ceremony for its own paper The Reason.

The roadshow, attended by teachers from South Craven School, Dixons Kings Academy, Bradford, Ilkley Grammar School and Nidderdale High School, Pateley Bridge, featured a number of training workshops led by journalists from The Independent, The Guardian, The Daily Mail and The Observer.

Teachers were introduced to different aspects of the industry such as sourcing news stories, writing features articles, sub-editing and the job of a night editor.

Those at the event also heard from Alison Strachan, chairman of the Shine School Media Awards on the organisation’s national competition and the benefits to schools of entering.

Ermysted’s pupils Harvey Stroh and Will Danson, who run the school’s newspaper, The Reason were also invited along, enjoying the opportunity to meet journalists of national newspapers and consider the possibilities for their own careers in the future.

Shine administrator, Anneliese Cooper Blake, said the event was a ‘great success’ as the Shine School Media Awards looks to improve provision for school journalism across the country and thanked Ermysted’s for its ‘warm hospitality.’

Liz Hunt, features writer for the Daily Mail, added: “It was a privilege to meet some of the team behind The Reason. It is a hugely impressive newspaper.”

The Shine School Media Awards is a national competition rewarding UK secondary schools who produce an outstanding newspaper, magazine, podcast or website.

The culmination of the competition is a gala awards ceremony at Stationers’ Hall in the City of London each summer.

For it newspaper, The Reason, Ermysted’s won the ‘best newspaper’ category, sponsored by The Daily Mail. In addition, it won ‘best newspaper cover’ and ‘best print and design’. It also picked up a highly commended in the ‘editor of the year’ section, for Alan Vaz and Sam Healey, while Harvey Stroh was highly commended in the Shine scholar, most outstanding pupil.