What is the learnnewsdesk?
Learnnewsdesk is the Guardian’s news service for schools. It’s
aimed at 9-14 year-olds but can be used by younger and older pupils.
Who writes it?
Most of the editorial content is produced by journalists
Emily Drabble and Emma Drury. Pictures are by Guardian photographers or agencies
including Reuters and the Press Association.
The learnnewsdesk also relies on a bank of experienced teachers and ex-teachers
to write lesson packs. If you think you could be a contributor email
Emily.drabble@guardian.co.uk.
How can I use the learnnewsdesk to deliver curriculum
requirements?
Each news story and each section of a lesson pack is accompanied
by an original, curriculum-linked activity.
There are also many general curriculum links that will
be delivered by using and contributing to learnnewsdesk.
What’s in the learnnewsdesk?
Here is a brief look at what’s behind each
icon on the top navigation bar.
Front page
Here you'll find the three top news stories and the two latest news in picture stories.
You can vote on the day's hot issue and read this week's lesson pack. At the top
of the page you will also find links to different places on the newsdesk.
News bank
Look in the news bank for recent news stories. Within each news story words in bold
are defined when you roll over them. You can also listen to the story by clicking
on the podcast button.
You can also find a bank of news in pictures stories in this section. Here news
stories are dealt with through photographs and a short paragraph.
Use the links at the side to find reports and activities in your subject area.
Activity links
If you click on the activity links in news stories or in lesson packs you'll find
a specially written curriculum-linked activity, further weblinks, a glossary and
teachers' notes containing learning objectives and curriculum links. Some activities
have related pictures or film.
Podcast
Click on the podcast symbol to hear the news report.
Vote
Here you can vote on today's hot issue or check out the results of past learnnewsdesk
votes.
Have your say
Got something to say about the news? Use this area of the site to have your say.
Fact files
Are you confused about the news? One of our fact files could help.
News quiz
Test your knowledge of the week's news in our fun news quiz.
Be a reporter
Read news stories and reviews by young reporters around the country and have a go
at being a journalist yourself. You can write and send in reports about any subject.
The best will be posted up on the site accompanied by photographs from the Guardian
photo library or, better still, with your own photos. Need inspiration? This part
of the site also includes an extensive tips section.
Lesson packs
Every week we public in-depth subject-based study of the news issue of the week
for KS3. All lesson packs are written by experienced subject teachers and provide
a complete one-hour lesson plus extension work. Issues are explored through extracts
from the Guardian and Observer. Visit the lesson pack library to find up-to-date
lessons using current affairs to deliver specific aspects of the curriculum in your
subject.
Search
You can search the learnnewsdesk archive under key word/s or get more specific by
defining subject area, date range and type of content.
RSS
RSS makes it possible for you to keep up with your favorite web sites in an automated manner that is easier than checking them manually.
If you're using an up to date web browser such as Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) or Firefox, the RSS feed will be loaded by the browser automatically. However,
if you have an older browser, for example IE version 6 or below, the feed will appear in its native XML format. In this case you will need to download an RSS reader to view the feed.
You can also subscribe to our RSS feed via iTunes. Simply open the iTunes client application, click 'Advanced' (top menu) followed by
'Subscribe to Podcast'. A dialogue box will open where you will need to paste the URL of our feed. Then click 'ok'. The feed will then be added to the Podcasts section of your library.