News from the past: inspired by BBC Children’s Newsreel

What should children’s news look like today?

In 1950, the BBC launched Children’s Newsreel, a version of the news for children. The first ever story was about Brumas the Bear, the first polar bear cub to be born and raised at London Zoo.

To mark the 70th anniversary of Children’s Newsreel, and explore how children’s news has changed over time, our writers aged 7-10 at Hanover Primary School in Islington wrote and presented their own news stories in collaboration with BBC History. We’ve made a learning resource too, so you can tell your own news stories.

Here is a selection of the news clips they created – filmed on an iPad in the school library. They were made last term before lockdown, and give a snapshot of the things our writers were thinking about back then. You’ll hear about the Islington Climate Strike, meet an Arsenal super fan and find out whether children at Hanover believe in aliens…

News from Lockdown

Our learning resource can be used by teachers to inform your online teaching, or led by children and their families at home. Here are some potential questions you could explore:

• If you’re at home, what is it like for you being there all the time?
• How are you doing your learning? What is it like?
• Are you the child of a key worker and still going to school? What is that like?
• Who is an interesting person in your home or school to interview about their experience in the current crisis?
• Have you started doing any new activities?
• How are you keeping in touch with friends?

We’d love to see your news reports. Share them via Twitter @mini_stories

Image credit: A family watching an edition of Children’s Newsreel in the 1950s © Keystone/Getty Images