30 January 2012 Last updated at 16:26

TEACHER ESSENTIALS

School Reporters sitting down, wearing their lanyards

KEY INFO

The resources on these pages are designed to give you more information about how School Report works and some of the important fundamentals of the project.

You'll also find resources you can use as extension activities for your class or as advanced options for older students.

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Basics

RESOURCES

If you're new to School Report or just want a refresher on how the project works, the guides on the right are full of useful information about the fundamentals of the project.

As well as finding the all-important paperwork, there is a guide for new teachers and advice on preparing for News Day and for gettign your website ready for School Report content.

There's also advice on working with BBC mentors and a useful page to direct parents to.

Don't forget, you can download posters and mic cubes to make sure everyone at school knows your students are taking part.

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RESOURCES

Development for pupils and teachers

Students can learn a lot about the media, how the news is made and the importance of values like impartiality and trust by taking part in School Report.

But research has shown that it can also help pupils develop other skills - and help you meet your own professional development goals.

The resources on the right offer more details and case studies.

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Working with other schools

RESOURCES

Your school can choose to link up with other schools taking part in School Report.

You can be part of a newsgathering hub with other schools in your region or you can even team up with a school from another country.

Check out the resources on the right for more information.

RESOURCES

Guide: Starting out in School Report

This is a great starting point if you are new to the project or want a refresher in the essentials.

It tells you many of the key things you need to know such as what forms you need to fill in and suggests a rough timeline of important dates.

Remember that it is up to you how you run the project in your school: the size of the group; the age of the pupils; whether it is run as part of the mainstream curriculum or as an after school club - all these things are up to the school and teacher to decide, depending on what works for your pupils and wider school community.

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Guide: School Report paperwork

  1. Join our mailing list to receive regular emails about the project. You only need to complete this stage once to be on our database, so if you are already receiving emails from us you don't need to fill in this form again.
  2. Return the Head Teacher Partnership Agreement (Form 1) as soon as possible to tell us that you are taking part in the project. This entitles you to:
  3. Return the Head Teacher Confirmation of Consent (Form 2) when you have obtained individual consents for your students creating or contributing to School Report content.

Forms 1 and 2 have to be completed each year by every school.

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Guide: Prepare your school web page

All the content your School Reporters produce needs to be put online, and we ask that you create a specific page for your content rather than just putting it on the school homepage.

This means people can always find your great content, rather than a homepage without any School Report stories.

Read this guide to find out how to ensure your school's webpage looks fantastic and is ready in time for News Day.

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Guide: How older students can mentor School Reporters

School Report is open to 11 to 16-year-olds - but older students can still get involved as mentors. Of course if you are doing the project with a group of, for example, Year 8 students, there's no reason why some Year 10 students couldn't be involved as mentors.

This guide offers advice and real life examples of how older pupils have been included in the project.

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Guide: Getting ready for News Day

Once you've signed up to take part in School Report, visit this page to find out more about what happens next.

There are ideas on how to prepare for News Day on 21 March and you can download School Report posters to spread the word about what you're doing.

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Guide: BBC Mentors

When possible, the School Report team tries to match schools taking part in the project with a BBC mentor.

This guide explains what mentors can do for your school's project and how the relationship works.

Please be aware though, that this is not always possible - unfortunately we have more schools than we do mentors!

And if you do have a BBC mentor, please make sure you use them sensibly! Mentors aren't teachers and shouldn't be expected to take lesson on their own or left on their own with pupils in a classroom.

Among the other common sense advice issued to mentors is to avoid physical contact with children; ensure they do not form personal relationships with pupils or exchange personal contact information such as email addresses or phone numbers.

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Guide: Information for parents

Some teachers, especially those new to the project, may find it useful to have a simple guide to the project for any curious parents.

It is difficult to produce a comprehensive guide, as different schools run the project very differently, but this guide covers most of the basics.

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Guide: How is School Report relevant to the curriculum?

Teachers from across the UK explain how they use School Report to help pupils develop specific skills required for their curriculum.

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News: School Report can improve literacy

Read more about research that indicates that participating in School Report can have an impact on literacy.

You can also download the full report.

And a report from two academics at the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University found "widespread agreement" about the worth of the initiative around the UK.

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Guide: Professional progress and School Report

This guide contains more information on how School Report can be used in Continuous Professional Development (CPD).

It includes links and a case study of a teacher who found the project useful.

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Guide: How to be part of a news gathering hub

Some schools become part of newsgathering hubs on News Day. This means they build links with other schools to report on their own news-making process on the big day.

Some schools are field reporters and others are news gatherers. This guide explains how it works and how to become part of a hub.

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Guide: Schools become news gathering hubs

Find out what teachers thought about being part of newsgathering hubs on News Day 2011.

The teachers explain how they ran the day and what their pupils got from the experience.

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Lesson: Working with international partner schools

BBC World Class and BBC News School Report have worked together to create a special lesson plan which helps students make an international news report with the help of their partner school.

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