Stonecrest news club brings back print

KINBURN – Enough to bring a twinkle to an old publisher’s eye, the Stonecrest Newspaper Club is bringing back print with an enthusiastic bunch of young reporters, photographers, editors and publishers.

Four times a week a little more than a dozen or so Grade 4, 5 and 6 Stonecrest Elementary Students give up their Friday lunch break to work on the monthly Stonecrest Elementary School News newspaper.

“We get together every Friday to work on our monthly paper,” club coordinator teacher Alissa Patterson told West Carleton Online Friday (Feb.7) from the club’s newsroom. “Our topics include a monthly recap, movie or book review, opinion pieces, craft/snack recipes to try, sports columns, teacher profiles, a monthly comic strip and the monthly joke.”

Patterson leads the club along with teacher Allison Peddle.

The newspaper club invited West Carleton Online publisher Jake Davies to visit the club and talk to the members about the news industry in general. In turn, the club told us about the work they are doing breathing young blood into an industry that has been losing newspapers across the country weekly for the last two decades.

For the first part of the month, club members pick what stories they are going to work on. Then they start doing the interviews they need to do and taking the photos they need to support the stories. By the end of the month they are ready to get together and put all that news in to the latest edition.

“Every month we do teacher profiles,” reporter Charlotte (last names were not used at request of the school) told West Carleton Online. “We rotate our sections of the month, and we do a joke of the month. We also do a section that is a craft.”

“We have a short meeting where we write down ideas and then decide what we’re working on and who’s working with who,” Gemma said.

West Carleton Online noticed immediately the passion and professionalism of the club, who asked many questions during our presentation, before sharing the work they do on the SES News.

“We choose six teachers, and we go and try and find them and ask them a few questions, like what’s their favourite colour, and take their photo,” Abby said.

The club also tries to encourage the love of reading in the school with a book of the month section.

“We pick a book and tell them why they might like it,” Kealey said.

At the top of each edition is the What’s Happening section which focuses on event coverage of events that just passed as well as upcoming events to spread awareness.

“The highlights,” Shea said. “And what’s trending.”

The paper also works on themes for its editions, like last November the paper focused on the theme of remembrance.

The crew like to include a comic strip just like newspapers of old use to run. Last month club member Brody made an original comic strip focusing on an anti-bullying message.

This is the second year for the newspaper club and Peddle says the club’s participants are dedicated. If you join the club, you are in for the whole month. If a student finds the club is not for them, they can leave at the end of the month after the latest edition is published.

Patterson says she uses some of her printing budget to publish broadsheet-style paper copies and the latest edition is also published on the school’s website.

“We started two years ago,” Peddle said. “It’s a good group and they work really hard. They are dedicated.”