At the chalkface What did I know?


GEENA IN the ninth year is a bit of a heroine and I’ve only just noticed. My fault, but the inner city classroom can sometimes bury a tot. Those not conspicuously flash, needy, loud, failing, brilliant, delinquent or melodramatic can sometimes go off the radar. They shouldn’t, but they do. Geena was hitherto a bit peripheral, quietly desperate in the famous English way – not waving but drowning. Well, what did I


know? She’d get in every


morning early at breakfast at 7:30am, skinny, hollow eyed and variously under-nourished. There she’d sit alone in the harsh canteen light with her toast and beans and cola. Sometimes you’d see her in the north playground, having the odd ciggy shivering in the drizzle. Why is she in so early? Because any place is better


than home. Her home is no home, no sanctuary and no place to hide. She just gets cabin fever. It’s just white noise and migraine static and yelling and bullying and worse with her wrecked parents, who can’t be arsed to get up and give her breakfast. And why don’t they show up on parents’ evenings? I get Blimpish and righteous about this. I’d like to whack them. Easy! I seem to be drifting intoDaily Mail territory.. So Geena flees all this in


any way she can. She’s up with the consumptive lark and on the hellish 52 from Willesden with


its ill-starred load and steamed up windows and yakking mobiles and then gets out and gets trashed by insufferable comments from menacing clots with road drills. I’d like to whack them too. So it’s poor sad Geena. Well,


wrong again teacher. This is a tale of hope and even redemption. I was succumbing to the teacher’s worse vice – dooming a tot to a self-fulfilling prophecy. I had a pleasant surprise. We’re discussing Rosemary Timperely’s killer storyHarry. Works every time,


especially with Geena. She’s suddenly talking


with rare passion and much insight, as serious as your life. She connects


the story with another book she’s been readingHow The Light Gets In by MJ Hyland. Never heard of it! Not on the syllabus. She soon comes in with Mervyn Peake’s


Titus Alone, with the ultimate, subterranean loner Steerpike.


I’ve been worrying about her and she’s been far away in fierce Gothic worlds. Gormenghast rather trumps Willesden and those, internecine, domestic quarrels – and, I’m afraid, my lessons. Literature can reach those parts that nothing else can. And now she’s writing stories and they are brilliant and driven and most dark. You can’t teach this. Geena is a modern heroine, a star against the odds. Nothing to do with me. I never knew.


• Ian Whitwham is a former secondary school teacher.


Breaking news: Tom Watson MP (left) and students from Whickham School (above) were at Westminster launch of the free resource, The News That Defined Us


MPs back media literacy resource by Daniel White


Students are being encouraged to evaluate bias and the presentation of facts within the news and understand the importance of media literacy. MPs on the Culture, Media and


Sport Select Committee, including Tom Watson and chairman Damian Collins, have given their backing to a free education resource highlight- ing what goes on behind the scenes to create and produce news. The News That Defined Us


has been launched across the UK and aims to encourage students to


understand how events unfold in the media. The programme has been cre-


ated by Whickham School in Newcastle, alongside the city’s Tyneside Cinema and BBC Newcastle. It is the result of a project that


spanned four school years and nine curriculum subjects over nine months and saw BBC broadcasters such as Kate Adie and Alastair Leithead contributing. The resource provides 200 interactive questions to support 30 hours of broadcast news footage. Topics covered include crime, con- flict, politics, media, culture and bias, and the resource also offers plenary


sessions where students get to quiz broadcasters and other experts. Anna Meldrum, curricu-


lum leader for media studies at Whickham School, said: “The News That Defined Us better equips young people to question some of the more complex and implicit mes- sages often hidden within a global news arena. The resource is acces- sible, engaging and spans the entire curriculum making it a valuable tool for schools that want to ensure their pupils retain an element of objectivity in the way they absorb the media.” At a launch event at the Houses of Parliament, students from


Whickham School joined Mr Watson to debate the news gather- ing process and the need for young people to engage with the news agenda and media literacy. Mr Watson said: “The UK’s


media is currently at a crossroads and truth and meaning have never before been under such scrutiny. Tackling this subject at an early age is vital in ensuring that society approaches the news agenda in a fair and balanced manner.” The resource is funded


by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the UK Film Council’s Digital Film Archive Fund. Visit www.tynesidecinema.co.uk/ntdu


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