THE NEWSLETTER OF THE GREY COAT HOSPITAL COMMUNITY Issue 11: March/April 2011


Year 9 students receive masterclass from BBC Reporter


On Thursday 17th February, a group of Yr9 students were lucky enough to have an opportunity to work with Huw Edwards from the BBC. Huw held a master- class for the first part of his visit, which involved showing students what skills are required to do live commentating. The students were surprised at how many people needed to be involved in this and the amount of advance preparation commentators have to do. They also enjoyed some of the good and bad aspects of clips shown to them by Huw. Following this, the group split in two. One half stayed at school to film some short pieces for the School Report website , and the other half went to Westminster Abbey to grill Huw about his job on “the Big Day”. We would like to say a big “thank you” to Kate Ford – our mentor at the BBC who arranged the master class for us. Clemmie, Grace and Jess give their account of the day below.


In the morning we left our lessons and went to a classroom for a talk about Huw Edwards’s job and commentating, it was so much fun, Huw talked to us about events he’d


Year 9 students and Ms Langton with Huw Edwards, near Westminster Abbey


commented on and how to be a good reporter/commentator, he showed us clips of his previous jobs and what bad commentating is. We were also interested about who would be commentating on what at the wedding and he explained about that as well. Then a small group of us went to Westminster Abbey to interview Huw about the Royal Wedding and his most important role!! It was a really fun day and it was interesting to find out how much effort and research is needed to be a commentator. We also learnt that commentating isn’t scripted and you have to work hard to be in the business. Over all it was an interesting event and an enjoyable experience that I won’t be forgetting soon! Clemmie


Our day with Huw Edwards started with a talk about what news reporting is about, informed us on his previous experiences and taught us about good commentating. He then showed us a few video clips where commentary has been used before, some with him and others with different commentators. An example of this was when the pope came to the UK last year.


This taught us how hard


commentating must be as there are often delays and distractions as well as a lot of deadlines. We then did a bit of recording to camera. Overall we found the day very insightful and interesting.


Grace & Jess


Suzy Mahon 9R interviews Huw Edwards


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12