We had a fun packed 4 days last week at the Study Centre when 6 young learners form Latimer Arts College and 6 young learners from Ferrers Arts College joined us for the Supporter to Reporter project.  S2R is a project in partnership with Radiowaves which trains young people in the skills of interviewing, reporting,  editing and uploading the finished articles to the Radiowaves website.  S2R aims to train young learners to become sports reporters for events going on in their county and nationwide with an overall aim that some of them may become young reporters at the 2012 Olympics.

On Tuesday, our S2R students spent the morning being trained on how to use the equipment and being given tips on techniques for recording Vox Pops.  In the afternoon the students went on a tour of Nene Park Stadium and conducted their first interviews with members of staff that they met during the tour.  These interviews were then edited and uploaded on to the S2RNorthampton website. 

To view Musicalgirl -x interview in the stdaium click here.

On Wednesday morning the young learners arrived at the Study Centre full of excitement and anticipation for their trip to Sky News.  This was an opportunity for the young reporters to go behind the scenes of how a television studio operates.  Our thanks goes to Jon Desborough from Sky News for the time he gave showing us around the studios and for the opportunity to speak to the floor manager and observe the gallery in action. 

To view hiphoppopotomus interview with Jon Desborough click here.

Thursday was a busy day for the reporters who were working to time deadlines to have the footage they had captured from the previous days  visit edited and uploaded by lunchtime.  They were then set a brief to interview players from both Kettering FC and R&DFC  as well as members of staff at the club in preperation for the match between R&DFC and Kettering Town on Saturday 11th April.  The young reporters showed great maturity and professionalism whilst undertaking these interviews and the amount of research they had conducted before hand was evident in the quality of their questions and their finished interviews which were uploaded to the S2RNorthampton site.

To view the *kingofcool interview with R&DFC Captain Chris Hope click here.

The highly anticipated match day finally arrived on Saturday 11th April and our reporters were given the opportunity to experience what it is like to be part of the Press team on a match day at Nene Park.  Our reporters conducted pre-match interviews with both the  Diamonds and the Kettering first team managers, conducted Vox Pops with both sets of fans before, during and after the match, produced match day reports from the stadium at half time to update fans on the action so far and saw first hand what happens in the press box during a match.  The young reporters then returned to the Study Centre where they worked on editing all of their footage and uploaded their work. 

To view a match overview from rugby_rampage and 2muchpaper click here.

The motivation from the students throughout the 4 days was amazing and the quality of their work and their professional attitude towards the project was evident throughout.  All of the young reporters were a credit to their schools, their familes and most importantly to themselves.  The Diamonds Study Centre is looking forward to working with the young reporters on other sports fixtures in the future with an aim to constantly develop their skills and knowledge of being a reporter in sports media.

Our thanks goes to Radiowaves for providing excellent trainers for the 4 days and also to Rushden and Diamonds FC for their support and co operation with arrangements for the week which allowed the reporters to gain such an invaluable experience.

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