When I grow up…

Last Wednesday I went into a local junior school to talk about magazines with two Year 6 classes.

I told them I was there to ‘talk about something really boring: WORK!’

They groaned, as I hoped/suspected they would.

I asked them what they wanted to do when they finished education. There were lots of footballers (including, refreshingly one girl), a couple of beauty technicians, a writer, a lawyer and ‘either a policeman or a murderer’ (turned out she meant murder detective).

I set up my talk with a quiz about what they imagined my life was like when I was their age (10-11).

They couldn't get their heads round TV not being on all them time (ONLY THREE CHANNELS!!!) or not having a mobile phone at the breakfast table, much less having to use a phone box and coins to call their parents to come and pick them up.

It was interesting watching them trying to figure out how I did my homework without the internet, ‘Did you ask your parents?’ – none of them had heard of encyclopaedias.

I told them I’ve always loved music and used to be interested in fashion and going out, and asked them how they thought I found out about what was going on.

‘Magazines!’ shouted one.

We then talked about how magazines were our internet – where we heard about new music, fashions, places…

I asked them if they could think of any jobs in newspapers and magazines – who writes the stories, who takes the photos, who looks out for spelling and factual errors. When I said that journalists were like content creators and editors were like influencers, they really perked up.

I talked to them about my career and how print had changed, and about how AI is changing the industry again.

How we used to make ‘em…

We then brainstormed ideas for a paper or magazine for the school.

It was the first time I'd been in front of a class of kids in more than a decade (I taught a lot of young classes in Spain and also volunteered at The Ministry of Stories when I lived in London) and I really enjoyed engaging with them.

The school is in one of the most deprived areas in the country and it was obvious that some of the kids came from homes where money is scarce. I noticed a couple of grubby uniforms and also that two of the kids were asleep during the session – I read about kids not getting enough to eat and consequently struggling to stay awake but it was the first time I’d seen it for myself. It is tragic. The consensus was not to call them out for sleeping, just to keep an eye on them.

The next day I got this lovely mail from the teacher.

'Like I said to you, there are several children across both classes for whom school and learning can be a big challenge and everyone responded so well to your input and task.

As a result of your visit, we've been inspired to change the way we do our "leaver's assembly" and rather than having children coming up and recounting their experience of being in Year 1, then another child talking about Year 2 etc etc, we're going to do the whole thing in the style of a magazine with articles displayed on the screen (and children narrating) about various key events in their school life - rather than the somewhat boring chronological version! So thanks for that too!

We are also thinking about setting up a school magazine to be run by next year's Year 6 cohort.'

It felt like the best day's work I've done in a long time.