Newsroom Day: Writing to a Deadline

The idea

Real journalists write quickly, accurately and for busy readers. This simulation trains exactly the skills that matter in timed exams: planning fast, prioritising information and writing concisely.

Outcome: a one-page class newspaper with 4–6 short news articles.

Before the lesson

Prepare four or five "news packs" (half a page each): a few facts, a quotation, a number or two. They can be invented local stories: a new cycle lane, a lost dog found, the school team's result, a strange event at the zoo. Hold one pack back as "breaking news".

Lesson 1

1. The inverted pyramid (10 min). News articles put the most important information first: who, what, where, when. Details and quotations come later. Show a short real news article and ask students to underline the who/what/where/when in the first sentence.

2. Headlines (5 min). Present tense, no articles, short: Council Approves New Cycle Lane.

3. Newsroom (40 min). Teams of three: a reporter, an editor and a headline writer (rotate roles).

• Every team receives a news pack and has 20 minutes to write a 120–150 word article.
• After 20 minutes, the editor checks facts against the pack and cuts unnecessary words.
• Then the next pack arrives.

4. Breaking news (last 10 min). One extra story arrives with five minutes to write it. Teams must decide what to cut from their front page.

Lesson 2

• Teams lay out the newspaper.
• Class reading and feedback: Which article gives the key facts fastest? Which headline is clearest?
• Language reflection: passive voice in news (A dog was found…), reporting verbs (said, claimed, confirmed), numbers and dates.