FAQs

What age group is the PA Media Experience suitable for?

Any students from the age of 14 upward.

How many students can come on the course at one time?

The ideal number is 16 – two students to every page/computer. However, up to 20 is viable if some students act as editor, picture editor, etc.

Do teachers have to accompany the students?

Yes, two teachers should accompany the students. This is because some activities necessitate dividing the students into two groups and we ask that there is a teacher with pupils at all times.

How long is the course?

The course runs for six weeks. It starts with a pre-briefing for students and teachers delivered at your school or college.

The students then decide who they are targetting the paper at and find and write up their own stories, take their own pictures and prepare to produce the eight-page paper.

Many schools find that during the six weeks it is useful to meet at lunch or after school once a week.

For the final two days you will work in the Bishop’s Manor in Howden or our Vauxhall Bridge Road offices in London producing the paper.

What will the students gain from the PA Media Experience?

They will:

• Gain a unique insight into the world of the media
• Participate in a hands-on project where students produce a real newspaper
• Be exposed to the real world of work
• Learn about news and story telling in print
• Learn about how the media works
  
• Learn to produce newspaper pages in an identical way to real journalists
  
• Learn to select stories and pictures according to their news value
  
• Write headlines and captions
  
• Allocate newsroom roles and responsibilities
  
• Learn to work as a team
  
• Manage deadlines
  
• Manage the business process including finding sponsorship and advertisements and selling or distributing the finished product

How many stories will the students need?

We suggest between 25 and 40 stories depending on length and between 25 and 40 pictures preferably of different shapes (landscape and portrait) and sizes but all at least 100 mm wide/high.

The smaller the pictures the more words you will need.

Take an average of 800 words per page.

What subjects will be suitable?

Anything you want, for instance:

• School news: plays, projects, sports, clubs, new buildings, courses, staff.
• Local news: issues with hospitals, traffic, parks, youth clubs.
• Features: concerts, films, theatre, product reviews.
• Quizzes, games, horoscopes.

What size is the paper?

The paper consists of eight full-colour tabloid pages.

How many copies of the paper will we get?

We will deliver 2000 copies of the paper to your school approximately two weeks after you have completed your PA Media Centre Experience.

Can we decide on the product's style and name?

Yes – within certain parameters. Obviously there is not time in two days to design a paper "from scratch" and so suggested type styles for headings, captions and body copy have already been written. Mastheads, page headings, folios, colours and other specifics can be decided by yourselves. Font choices are limited by whether we are licenced to print the ones you choose, but we do have a large selection.

Who checks the paper?

You do. At the end of the course we print colour proofs of all your pages for you to take away and correct. You can also take extra copies for your Headteacher, head of department to see.

One of our senior subs will also check the pages to make sure that there are no legal problems.

Once the proofs are corrected we arrange a time to discuss any changes over the phone before the final pages are sent to the printers.

How much will the course cost?

The PA Media Centre Experience costs £1500 for the Howden, East Yorkshire centre and £1750 for the London centre. This price includes a pre-course visit to your school to discuss the project, the final two days at the Press Association's centre and 2000 copies of the full-colour, eight-page paper delivered to your school.

Is funding available?

Funding is frequently available from bodies such as EBLO. If you have difficulty getting funding then contact us and we will look into the possibilities for you.

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