A newsworthy visitor!

Over the last few days, Year 4 have become journalists so they can write news reports on the video clip, 'Pigeon Impossible'. We were very lucky to have a special visitor today to help us with our work!

Chris Robinson came in to talk to us about what it was like to be a journalist. Chris works for the BBC's South Today news programme. He told us about why he wanted to be a journalist, how he trained to be a reporter and what journalists do to get the facts for their stories. He also showed us one of his news reports and talked about what he uses to remember all of the information that he's found out.

We had the chance to look at his earpiece and found out how the gallery at the BBC give him instructions and timings when he reports live from different locations.

He also showed us his notebook. However, we didn't understand what was written down! That's because reporters use shorthand to make notes because it takes less time and because people sometimes talk very quickly!

We also looked at the script from last night's programme, which was read by Sally Taylor. We learnt that the presenter needs a script to present the news - especially if the autocue fails! It also helps them to understand the story and to ask questions to people that they interview in the studio.

Finally, we watched another exciting news report that was all about Daleks!

Thank you to Chris for coming in to talk to us today. We found out lots of exciting things about the life of a journalist and we had lots of answers to our questions.

What did you find out from Chris' visit? Add what you found out to the comments below.