成人论坛

Duncan Kirkhope’s enthusiasm for journalism was sparked by the visit of a reporter to his school nearly 40 years ago. Nowadays he tries to repay that debt by being a mentor.

'School Report students question the First Minister with the skill and confidence of political correspondents'

I was about 13 or 14 years old when a journalist from the daily paper came to a careers event at my school. This chief reporter was enthusiastic about his work as a journalist and said it was a career which could open doors to many varied, interesting and exciting opportunities.

Now, after more than 35 years working for newspapers and , I still believe that to be true.

It’s probably harder for a young person to embark on a journalistic career nowadays than it was for me at the age of not quite 17 in the early 1980s. But I still like to think that anyone, from whatever background - if they combine enthusiasm with effort - can still achieve that goal.

Certainly many of the School Report students I have had the pleasure of working with over the last five or six years have had these qualities. One 14 year old whom I remember, practically ran out of the classroom to do an extra interview when I suggested one more quote would provide the final balance to an otherwise great piece of news writing.

I have taken School Report students to the to question the First Minister which they did with the skill and confidence of political correspondents. Young people I have worked with have presented their journalism live on the 成人论坛 News Channel. One group’s School Report project was judged so good, they were chosen to interview the Deputy Prime Minister at Number 10.

Being a School Report mentor needn’t be a huge time commitment. I did have a request once asking if I could pop along to a school, give the students some ideas, help them film a feature and then edit it for them....

But I believe School Report is more about young people finding their own stories that they want to tell. Then it’s the mentor’s role to help them take their work to the standards of 成人论坛 journalism.

Working with young people reminds me what an interesting job being a journalist is. Sometimes I forget that, too caught up in the hectic daily schedules of a busy newsroom. It rekindles the enthusiasm I had as a teenager starting out.

If I can interest a young person in journalism, who may have thought such an opportunity wasn’t open to them, then that would be a great achievement. It would also repay a debt to that enthusiastic journalist who came to my school nearly forty years ago.

成人论坛 Outreach & Corporate Responsibility brings the 成人论坛 closer to its audiences - particularly those audiences we have identified as harder to reach - with face-to-face activity, community support and staff volunteering.

成人论坛 School Report is a partnership between 成人论坛 Academy, 成人论坛 News, 成人论坛 Sport, and 成人论坛 Children’s - it gives thousands of 11-16-year-old students in the UK the chance to make their own reports for a real audience, using lesson plans, 成人论坛 learning materials, and the help of 成人论坛 mentors.