Bradford United

Bradford United is a unique project to bring two Bradford schools from different parts of the city and the BBC closer together. Taking part are staff and pupils at Hanson School, Laisterdyke Business and Enterprise College, BBC Newsnight and BBC Yorkshire.

A group of fifteen-year-olds from both schools are being trained to put together TV news reports on issues which are important to them. Above all, they are asking the question, "What's it like to be 15?"

The students' first reports were screened on Look North and Newsnight in March 2007. The Laisterdyke students investigated the relationship between drugs and bullying while the group from Hanson looked at the whole business of stereotyping.

Although the schools are not that far apart on the map, at first glance they could be seen to be very different. 80% of the pupils at Hanson are white while at Laisterdyke 91% of the pupils come from the city's Asian communities.

Going bowling!

Now both groups of students have decided it's time to work together. Feeling a bit apprehensive they decide they need to do something to break the ice before visiting each other's schools.

They go bowling together and even make a film about it. Sabah from Laisterdyke says: "It's as though we've known each other all our lives."

The students are then ready to visit each other's schools. They see the 'best bits' and some not so good 'bits'.

Hanson students say goodbye...

The Laisterdyke students find that Hanson is much bigger than they thought and believe that they would have found the visit much more difficult to cope with if they hadn't been to the bowling alley. The camera attracts some unfortunate attention during the visit to Laisterdyke.

TAKING PART:

HANSON HIGH SCHOOL - Daniel, Rob, Callan, Emily, Charlotte, Rowanna, Pardeep, Danielle, Manpreet and Josh.

LAISTERDYKE BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE COLLEGE - Sabrina, Sabah, Fareed and Shamyla.