Following one of the busiest and most productive House Media competitions in the history of the contest, Bramley was announced as this year’s winning House.
The House Media competition sees teams of four pupils in each House producing filmed and written content for a series of news reports and podcasts, categorised into Headline News, Regional News, Environment, Sport, Podcasts and Weather.
Mirroring the editorial and production workflow of a real-life newsroom, pupils start by generating, pitching and deciding on story ideas and allocating assignments before the teams head out across the school as roving reporters to gather information, interview and film staff and pupils. Back in the newsroom, the reports are checked and edited before uploading to the House Media website. Each of the reports across all categories are then carefully reviewed by an independent adjudicator not attached to any of the Houses.
Reports this year covered a variety of topics, ranging from the impact of social media on beauty standards, the new school building under construction, netball as a mixed sport, and the environmental impact of paper vs surfaces, to the importance of learning foreign languages, supporting mental wellbeing and strategies to help student stress, the importance of sleep, and uncovering the safeguarding reasons for afternoon registration.
While each of the five Houses garnered high praise and special mentions from the adjudicator, Bramley took the trophy for their reports including interviews with the Head of Football, a look at the safety of public transport, and their podcast that included an interview with the Director of Pastoral Care.
Teacher of Media Studies, ICT Co-ordinator and Head of Prendergast House, Jillian Li-Sue said: “This was a fantastic House Media competition and really showed the creativity, organisation and commitment of our pupils. During the course of the day each House team created six reports – that’s 30 in total, which is the largest number of articles ever completed by pupils participating in this competition. A huge thank you to every member of staff who supported the efforts of the pupils yesterday and gave up their time to be interviewed. The pupils worked extremely hard and were an absolute delight to have in this competition. Our congratulations to all of them.”
