Silloth Primary School pupils get visit from Newsquest reporter

Pupils from Year 3 and 4 at Silloth Primary School were visited by Times & Star reporter Bridget Dempsey to learn more about what life is like as a journalist in Cumbria, as well as having the chance to write some of their own stories.

Year three pupils had a chance to write their own stories about transitioning to year four. (Image: Supplied)

Bridget visited Silloth Primary School last Monday, July 3 giving a talk to children about how she got into the industry and how to write news stories, as well as sharing what life is like reporting on the news in Cumbria.

Children from the Year 3 class at the school were given the opportunity to look at some of the Newsquest papers from around the county and had the chance to write their own stories about transitioning to year 4, with pupils interviewing each other on their thoughts and feelings around the transition before writing up news stories about their classmates.

Pupils from the year three class with reporter Bridget Dempsey (Image: Supplied)

Year 4 children listened to Bridget talk about her role and what it's like to be a journalist in the area, as well as asking lots of questions about what it was like to work for the local paper.

The Year 4 class then went on to write their own stories, imagining their favourite singer had written a song about Silloth and interviewing their chosen celebrity’s ‘manager’ before putting together their own stories on the subject.

The year four children wrote stories about celebrities going to Silloth. (Image: Supplied)

Year 4 pupil, Archie Williamson, aged 9, said: “I enjoyed the day a lot and I enjoyed having a go at writing my own story about Harry Styles coming to Silloth.”

Year 4 teacher Eve Bateson said: “Years 3 and 4 were visited by Bridget Dempsey, who is a journalist for the Times & Star.

“The children had the opportunity to ask Bridget questions about her job and she gave them tips on how to write their own newspaper reports.

Pupils asked lots of questions about life as a journalist. (Image: Supplied)

“The children thoroughly enjoyed their sessions and Bridget was very impressed with how engaged they were - it seems as though we have some future journalists on our hands!

“Special thanks to Bridget for giving up her time to inspire our children.”

Bridget said: “It’s always so lovely for us to be able to go into communities and hopefully inspire the next generation of budding young journalists.

Lots of fun was had as part of the sessions with pupils. (Image: Supplied)

“The children at Silloth Primary were fantastic and showed some real promise when using journalistic skills during the sessions.

“All the children were really polite and took a keen interest in creating their own stories as well as asking some fantastic questions about what it’s like to be a real-life journalist in the county.

“We may have some future journalists and sports journalists on our hands..."