How to create a school newspaper

Before you even begin to plan the classroom newspaper, ensure the students have plenty of examples of local and national newspapers to hand to gain inspiration on layout and style.

These newspapers provide information on many topics in a variety of ways. News stories tell you what’s happening on local, national and international scenes. Feature stories expand your knowledge of social issues and events. Opinion columns and editorials provide arguments and debate on controversial topics. Advertising, which is space paid for by brands and businesses, provides important information about goods and services available in your area. Newspapers have several objectives: to inform, interpret and entertain.

Suggested discussion points for brainstorming with groups:

What are the main objectives of the newspaper?

Inform, interpret, entertain ?

Emphasis on:

• News stories – local, national, international? Feature articles – expanding knowledge of social issues and events ? Opinion columns and editorials – providing arguments and debates on controversial topics ?

• Advertising – space paid for by brands and businesses providing important information about goods and services available locally?

Layout & Design:

• How many pages will the newspaper have?How many columns in each page?

How to create a digital newspaper using a programme such as WordPress. Here is an example of what one school did : Banagher College

One of the following could be used to find a newspaper template:

Canva.com

Twinkl.ie

PrintNewspaper.Com

Assign sections and editors for each section. Discuss different roles: e.g.

• Who will write what stories?

• Who will check the stories for spelling, grammar and punctuation?

• Who will take the photos or draw cartoons/illustrations?

• If making a digital newspaper, will video or audio be used? Who will do that?

• Discuss a name for the newspaper. An election could be held to determine the newspaper name.

• Establish deadlines so the class paper is ready in time for the Young Journalist Ireland competition ( 19th of March 2025).