<
https://www.positive.news/society/a-new-school-teaches-children-from-low-income-families-to-be-journalists/>
"It may be better known for its steel bands, jerk pits and sound systems, but
next month’s Notting Hill Carnival has a new addition to the line-up: a team of
journalists as young as five.
Students of The Cocoa School of Journalism and Creative Arts, which opened in
April, will be recording videos, carrying out interviews and writing articles.
And they will all be published in
Cocoa Girl and
Cocoa Boy, the UK’s first
Black children’s magazines.
“We want these children to have real life experiences. We give children real
briefs,” explains Serlina Boyd (pictured), the woman behind both projects. “I
was told as a child: ‘Keep your head down, don’t talk too much, just remember
you’re the ‘other’.’ Now there comes a generation who want to show the world
what they can do – and we’re giving them the platform to do that.”
The after-school club ran its first classes during the Easter holidays,
offering three days of sessions across creative writing, graphic design and
magazine creation. Some 30 students aged between five and 17 were coached to
write their own stories without the use of iPads, phones or any other forms of
tech – “just beautiful handwritten stories,” Boyd says. “When the parents came
and listened to what the children had written, they were blown away,” she adds.
Based in Beckenham, south London, the school launched its second course in May,
a weekly Sunday session looking at the intersection of fashion design and
journalism. More classes will run in the summer holidays, where students will
design costumes to be worn by dancers in the Notting Hill Carnival parade.
Tickets to the workshops cost £25 per pupil, however funded places are
available to families on low incomes, thanks to a ‘sponsor a place’ scheme Boyd
runs on LinkedIn. At the Easter workshops, half of all the places were funded
by donations from people in Boyd’s community."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
