On the 1st March 2007 twenty students from St Thomas A Becket Catholic Comprehensive School, Wakefield travelled to the Playing for Success Centre at the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats RLFC stadium, Belle Vue.  The students worked as part of the media teams in a simulated real life environment, responding to problems as they arose whilst using a wealth of technology. The students worked in their teams – as editors, reporters, photographers, website and newspaper designers, and video reporters – to report on the Sports Reports Games.  Whilst working creatively to generate materials based on the Games, set in the year 2012, the students use videoconferencing to communicate with their ‘boss’ based in London.  Fictitious problems, such as a drugs failure, saw the students react by altering the newspaper and website they were creating in order to relay this information to the general public.  They also produced podcasts with this news and recorded video reports.

The students produced some of the best resources seen during the delivery of this event.  The students responded well to the challenges they faced during Sports Reports, run for the first time outside of a school.  The students had access to most areas of the stadium, including the gym and changing rooms.  Some of the students were able to interview the Wildcats Head Coach, John Kear, whilst others made the most of the players training session to capture photographs and video.

Plans are a foot to take this event to the Playing for Success Centre at Featherstone Rovers RLFC, and potentially further a field as the event is rolled out across Wakefield and its four partner Local Authorities.

Read more about Sports Reports on the 'Videoconferencing' page.