Marking a milestone (original) (raw)

The Education Centre is managed by Guardian News & Media (GNM) on behalf of the Guardian Foundation. From a classroom at GNM’s London offices, the small team runs a range of workshops, activities and events to enable pupils, teachers, university students, adult learners and families to interact with the news and to get a realistic understanding of what it is like to work for a news organisation.

Celebrating success

In September 2014, the Centre welcomed what was its 100,000th visitor since it opened in May 2002. To the nearest thousand, those 12 years add up to:

3500+ sessions

65,000 children and students under 18

18,000 students aged 18-25

10,000 teachers, lecturers, teaching assistants

5,000 adult learners

2,000 parents Guardian (at Family Days)

A breakdown of the 100,000 people who have visited GNM's Education Centre since it opened in 2002

A breakdown of the 100,000 people who have visited GNM’s Education Centre since it opened in 2002

To celebrate, the Centre hosted two special workshops with schools that have visited on a regular basis: students from Monkfrith School took part in a primary newspaper workshop with feedback from editorial staff. Meanwhile, Year 9 media studies students from from Ellen Wilkinson School attended a Women in Media workshop, interviewing eight female journalists, editors and staff. There was also a celebration to thank all staff volunteers from the editorial, IT and commercial departments who support the Centre’s workshops and events.

“The workshop was taught with fabulous enthusiasm and encouragement, an absolutely wonderful and inspiring day.” - Katrina Donaghy, Monkfrith Primary School

Expanding reach

The schools programme continues to be heavily oversubscribed; bookings are made an academic year in advance and there are 450 schools on the waiting list. This year, schools came from as far as Yorkshire, Cheshire, Cumbria, France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway and the UAE to take part.

“Excellent delivery with good pace - the students thoroughly enjoyed the workshop. They had very positive experiences of being in a journalist’s shoes for the day. It has been a really interesting and fulfilling day.” - Louise Brooke, College Alpin Beau Soleil, Switzerland

University and higher education groups visited from the USA and the Netherlands, as well as the UK.

“Another memorable session at the Guardian. You were terrific and Ewen MacAskill was, well, riveting. The students were in awe. Education at its best.” - Jeffrey Kofman, Indiana University School of Journalism

In 2014/15, the Centre ran 256 sessions for 7292 visitors. That figure includes::

5078 Children and students under 18

964 Students aged between 18 and 25

204 Parents and guardians

964 Teachers

217 Adult learners

102 Volunteering staff

Responding to change

In response to editorial and digital development at the Guardian, along with curriculum changes, the team introduced two new workshops: a first world war workshop for secondary schools was first delivered in November and has been very well received.

“Thank you for a brilliant [first world war] workshop today. The students thoroughly enjoyed it and were very proud of their efforts. They made lots of lovely comments about their experience on the way home, with some asking questions about journalism and related jobs. I felt it really widened their horizons and gave them some confidence.” - Sarah Benson, Blenheim High School, Surrey

The second new workshop, developed with the Guardian Digital Development team, concentrated on coding and journalism. Workshops were piloted in January and March with pre-selected schools and they received excellent feedback:

“An excellent, well-structured and supported workshop. It was great to be able to show them how coding skills are applied in the real world.” - Claire Bannister, The Chafford School Essex

The Centre also support professional development for teachers through its popular Reading for pleasure conference and Insight into Journalism series.

“It was a brilliant day. I got such a lot from the conference and the different sessions were incredibly motivating; to know there is so much enthusiasm, creativity and energy in library and literary professionals up and down the country, all striving to engender a love of reading and learning in the younger generation and all so generous in sharing ideas and resources.” - Lesley Spurrell, Shenley Brook End School, Milton Keynes

Extending partnerships

The Centre works with internal departments and external media and cultural partners. They include Kings Place Music Foundation, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the British Library and Channel 4. There are also sessions for Guardian community partners and the Centre is very involved in GNM’s annual Volunteering Week.

Staff involvement

Over the years, more than 100 members of GNM’s staff have got involved in projects and activities at the Education Centre. Here is some feedback from them and some visitors to the Centre:

“This was an excellent day. Everyone we saw was helpful and interesting and keen to interact with us. I cannot praise the Education Centre team enough for all the interaction I have had with you , not just this seminar.” - Elisabeth Murphy, Heathside School, Surrey.

“ The main reason I’m always happy to talk to the students that come into the Education Centre is one of aesthetic I want people to know that journalists come in all colours and with different life experiences. Seeing that might just inspire the person sat at the back who’s paying no attention because they’ve worked out they have no chance of going to Oxbridge.” - Eliza Anyangwe, journalist

“It’s always an absolute pleasure to speak to visiting school groups in the Education Centre. It’s a chance to speak to the next generation of readers and to find out about their news interests and beyond. It’s something that adds a lot of value to my role. The Education Centre is a wonderful thing, and I’m proud to be a part of the work it does.” - Emily Drabble, editor, Guardian children’s books site