getting started with Making the News

What is Making the News? online news reporting system can be used at school and at home used by staff and pupils it’s free to set up and to use (contact CLEO to be set up)CLEO simple interface no technical knowledge needed or assumed

How do I find my school’s page? go to follow link to Making the News click on “regions” choose “CLEO schools” from drop down menu click on your school’s name (contact CLEO if you aren’t yet set up)CLEO this is your school’s MTN “homepage”

Go to click on

Go to click on

Go to click on the name of your school

This is your school’s URL and the link you should use from your school website your school’s URL is unique

Making a news story is easy make sure you are on your school’s page click on “news” and then “submit” click on “guest entry” start writing!

Make sure you are on your school’s page click on

(make sure you are on your school’s page) click on

(make sure you are on your school’s page) click on

Start to write - or copy and paste - your story beginning with the by-line…. Enter your name – school policy is usually first name only

Story Headline Think carefully about headlines – do use CAPITALS, puns, alliteration etc

The Story Stories can be copied and pasted from a word processing package – clear paragraphing is important.

Multi-Media – make the most of it Upload a picture, movie, or an MP3 sound file

Multi-Media – make the most of it Explain your media to the reader in your caption

Insert a relevant hyperlink This is the text that the reader will see

Insert a relevant hyperlink This is the full web address for the link (use

Save and Preview Preview and add more media items and hyperlinks

Re-edit Click on re-edit to alter your story, add more media and/or links

Publish Click on publish to send your story to your school’s administrator(s)

School ICT/Image Consent Policies Schools will need to look at Making the News in the light of their ICT, Internet and image consent policies and guidance should be issued. This is the responsibility of the individual school.

Making the most of MTN Make sure that you have up-to-date Flash Player and QuickTime players installedFlash Player QuickTime At present only QuickTime movies can be uploaded – this will be changed in the near future Make sure that pictures aren’t too big to be uploaded – use a free package such as Irfan View to compress themIrfan View Ensure that all your reporters are aware of copyright

More issues and ideas Administrators can preload images in the Media Library ready for use (be aware of copyright issues) FlashBlogging doesn’t always work within CLEO for security reasons. It is a neat way of recording a small “talking head” using a webcam plugged into your computer. It may work at school or at home if you wish to try it. Look beyond CLEO at the other RBCs in “Regions” for ideas and inspiration

Everyone can use MTN – pupils, teachers, non-teaching staff, PTA, governors… Use MTN to celebrate learning, activities and events in your school/home community

Good luck making your news!