Students ‘scoop’ press awards

MACROOM students were among the top winners of the NewsBrands Ireland Press Pass student journalism competition.

Students from St Mary’s Secondary School, Macroom were awarded third place in the school newspaper category.

Keirsha O’Hare from St Mary’s took home third place in the news reporter category, while her fellow student Ava McSweeney was awarded second place in the sports journalism category. Ella Healy, also from St Mary’s, came second in the features section.

The event, which was hosted by broadcaster Matt Cooper, was attended by the award-winning school students, their teachers and families, along with leading national news editors and journalists.

Press Pass is a transition year student journalism and news literacy programme which has been run by NewsBrands Ireland since 2012.

The free programme, which has been completed by 120,000 students, seeks to teach the fundamentals of journalism writing, improve news literacy and critical thinking skills, and encourage students to analyse content and form opinions about important social issues.

Participating schools receive access to free digital news, a teacher’s lesson plan, and a specially created student workbook.

NewsBrands has a partnership with the Department of Education’s Oide Teachers Support to provide webinars and podcasts for teachers which included advice and inspiration from renowned journalists and editors.

During the Press Pass module, students are encouraged to engage with newspapers and digital news in the classroom, to analyse the journalism and then to create their own original journalism, the best of which is entered into a national competition.