Clare school children launch their own newspaper

SAINT Enda’s National School in Lisdoonvarna launched its first newspaper, The Lisdoon Leader, this week after months of preparation and teamwork, writes Conor Clohessy.

Brian Carty, principal at St Enda’s, emphasised that the past few years have been a tough time for children, and the staff wanted to make the process a little bit more fun through team learning.

Throughout the academic year, the students learned how to present broadsheet newspapers, and became more familiar with media office vernacular.

Roles were also assigned within the class group to give the students a clearer impression of how a press office works, with teachers only giving a final glance over the copy otherwise.

Brian said, “They’ve been brilliant, and they deserve to have something at the end of it. There was a lot of learning in it, but it was nice to be a fun environment. The children attacked it with gusto and got stuck in with the work.”

He added that there would be jealousy in years to come if the newspaper didn’t continue, and it has been such a success thus far that it would be a waste not to make The Lisdoon Leader a yearly tradition.

Formatting and printing were finalised on Tuesday, and Brian highlighted that the children have become very conscious of decision-making and editing since the newspaper’s inception, wishing to perfect every facet of their project, down to dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s.

The Lisdoon Leader team took their time in developing questions for their interviewees, some of whom were their teachers, and explored some more current topics in their newspaper including Storm Eunice and sports stories about the Premier League transfer market and Clare GAA.

Brian added, “We also have crosswords, puzzles, movie reviews, local restaurant reviews and recipes. We like to encourage the Irish language and culture here as well, so we have a piece about the Kilfenora band and articles as Gaeilge.

“The students really became their own worst critics in this, and it was great to see how invested they became.”

With students finally holding their own newspaper in their hands this week, The Lisdoon Leader is bound to set in motion an appreciation of journalism in the school that might offer up some fresh recruits in the future.