About the project

The Deakin School News Network gives Year 9 and 10 students the chance to make their own news reports for a real audience.

The project involves Deakin staff, local reporters and teachers in helping students develop their journalistic skills to become school reporters.

Reports can be about a school event, an issue that involves the school or something that students are interested in. As soon as you have a completed report, upload it online and send us the web address so we can link to it via our interactive map and others in the Network can see your latest news. Schools can submit as many reports as they want to throughout the year.

The Deakin School News Network project aims to interest young people in news and the world around them by giving them the opportunity to create their own news for a real audience, via a Deakin link up web page.

The Deakin School News Network project encourages students to develop their ability to work in teams, manage time, work independently, communicate effectively and think and evaluate their work critically.

Students also discover the legal and ethical responsibilities involved in broadcasting.

FIVE STEPS FOR TEACHERS

• STEP 1: Register your school to become part of the Deakin Schools News Network project.

• STEP 2: Complete the Principal Partnership Agreement form

• STEP 3: Return Form 2, the Parent Consent form, for your school to become part of the Deakin Schools News Network Reporting Team.

• STEP 4: Prepare a dedicated web page for your students' news on your school website and email us the URL so we can link to the patron the Deakin School News Network interactive map. We will then link to it from the Deakin website interactive map.

• STEP 5: Start reporting! Make your news report and upload your students' news to your dedicated page.

FIVE STEPS FOR STUDENTS

• STEP 1: Form your reporting team - it can be large or small.

• STEP 2: Work out your equipment and your technical capabilities. These may include access to video - tripods - microphones - audio recorders - editing software - YouTube or Vimeo accounts. Can you get IT help to create your dedicated webpage for your reports and get advice on what you'll need to do to make it happen?

• STEP 3: Find your news story (or stories). You are the editors, you must choose what your audience would like to know more about or should know more about. Decide whether you will report just one main story or several stories. It's up to you, but be aware of your limitations - the main rule of news is that you MUST meet your deadline, so don't risk being over-ambitious and falling behind schedule.

• STEP 4: Plan and carry out the reporting. Work out all the different tasks and assign people to work on them. Plan your reporting - will you need permission to film or record? Will you need to write letters or emails requesting interviews? What are the key events you will need to cover and how will you go about getting the information and material for your report?

• STEP 5: Edit and produce the reports. Decide on how much text you’ll need to write, how much video you’ll need to edit, which photos you’ll select and what shape and form the report will take.