Reporters - Pupil voice group
Our reporter pupil voice roles have been created from 2021 in conjunction with a TArDIS enrichment plan to support both written, oral and technological communication. They will be reporting on many school and TArDIS events.
In 2023/24 our reporters have joined with the Digital leaders to create our first podcasts for Radio Bretherton. In addition, we hope to create a pupil website and newspaper to develop careers in journalism, technology and entertain our pupils and families.
During lock down one of the year 6 reporters considered the importance of friendship:
FRIENDS MATTER by Joseph Sykes
What do you think is the most important thing in life? Do you think it’s money, a beautiful house, or a shiny new car? If you think it’s any of these things, you are wrong : surely, the thing that matters the most is friendship.
Friends matter!
Why do friends matter, I hear you ask? Friends make your life better; they make life more enjoyable. Research has shown that strong friendships can lower stress, improve a person’s self confidence, lead to increased happiness and better overall health.
Personally, my friends are important to me because they keep me going. They are there for me when I’m sad, and encourage me to persevere. They praise me when I achieve something, and share things with me as we play games and enjoy time together.
We know from reading the research that loneliness, living alone and having few or no friends has been shown to be as bad for your health as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day. Loneliness is worse for you than obesity, and can increase your risk of death by 29%.
Lonely people are more likely to suffer from dementia, heart disease and depression.
As you can see, friendship really does matter.
Bad friendships can negatively affect your health too. There have been numerous studies carried out on the effects of friendship, and bad moral choices can be copied by friends, for example, smoking and drinking excessively. Also, a bad friend will put you down and not build you up, although you could question whether that friend has ever really been your friend at all. In choosing friends, you should choose wisely. To quote Marlin in the film ‘Finding Nemo’: “With fronds like these who needs anenomes?”
Let’s look at the ingredients for being a good friend.
A good friend should be 3 Es :
- Empathetic. A friend needs to understand your feelings and care for you.
- Encouraging. A friend tells you that you CAN do something and helps you along the way.
- Enriching. A friend should want to spend time with you, enjoying life and shared interests and experiences.
However, a friend should also be wise and challenging, for example warning you if you are doing something harmful to yourself or others.
Is it possible to be friends with someone very different from you?
YES! As long as you accept and enjoy your differences, you can learn from one another. The more you get to know one another, the better you will be able to empathise and see things from new perspectives.
Is it possible to be friends with someone very similar to you?
YES! You will know how the other person feels and have had experiences in that area. You will know how to make the person feel better, and react in the right way when they tell you certain things.
Let’s appreciate our friends and value them. Tell them and show them that we care and spend time with them, and let’s be grateful and thankful that we have such friends in our lives.
Finally, these quotes sum up friendship for me.
‘A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.’ Elbert Hubbard
‘There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends.’ Jane Austen
‘There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.’ Anonymous
‘Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.’ Oprah Winfrey
‘I understand you…and I shall not attempt to make you change your mind…I shall help you even if I disagree with you.’ Milan Kundera
A speech about Climate Change by one of our star reporters.
Thank you for letting me speak to you today about the most pressing issue our planet is facing- climate change. Some of you may be wondering what climate change is, so I will explain. Climate change is the process of our weather systems becoming more unstable due to greenhouse gases, like the infamous Carbon dioxide, being released into the atmosphere. Due to various astronomical cycles, Earth’s climate is constantly changing, going through ice ages and warmer eras. However, due to drastic advances in technology since the Victorian times, we have been emitting so many greenhouse gases in much larger amounts, that our planet is currently the warmest it has ever been.
You may be wondering why this is so important, especially as many people are constantly craving warmer temperatures and go on many holidays abroad to achieve this desire. Surely, warmer temperatures everywhere is a good thing, right? Well, this rise in global temperatures will affect everyone negatively, albeit at different points in our futures. First of all, the polar ice caps will start to melt. This will cause a rise in sea levels globally, which will flood many low lying areas of land, especially those on or near the coast, like London, the Maldives, and the Netherlands. All of these floods will lead to many people losing their homes, businesses, and possibly even lives.
Warmer temperatures will also make wildfires, like the ones in Australia at the start of 2020, much more common. Both of these disasters will also cause mass extinction of many animals and plants, that once gone, can never be brought back.
Whilst you may be feeling a sense of despair after what I’ve said, you don’t need to worry. We can change the course that we’re on, but we all need to change, even a small change is better than none at all. We need to move away from using fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas; to using renewable energies like wind power, solar power, and HEP.
Thank you for listening. I’m going to leave you with five things that you can do to help stop climate change and I hope that you all try and do at least one of these things in your day to day life to help stop climate change.
- Cycling instead of driving
- Installing renewable energy generators on/in your home (solar panels)
- Turning off electronic devices when they are not being used
- Going on more local holidays, rather than abroad
- Turning your heating off when the weather is getting warmer
Please scroll down below to watch our reports.Harry reported on the environment, Jack reported on the cricket World Cup, Ellis reported on Remembrance Day, Amelia reported on fair trade, and Joseph reported on the ks2 maths workshop for parents.