1. Emily Drabble Senior editor learnnewsdesk PSHE conference
Your pupils are inheriting the world – so it’s important that they know about it. Learnnewsdesk helps children become engaged with the world – it opens world up – helping your students grow up into informed adults capable of voting and making decision that will affect their future.

2. As PSHE coordinators and teachers you obviously want to engage your pupils - and part of that is for your pupils to be engaged in the world. Today I’m going to tell you how learnnewsdesk can help achieve that aim.
Roots lie in the Education Guardian - the pull out section that appears every Tuesday and is read in staffrooms up and down the country. Some of you might remember it was about providing teaching resources, pages of lesson ideas written by teachers for teachers. That concept was translated to the online environment in the form of learnpremium.
The learnnewsdesk was conceived by journalists and teachers at the Education Guardian as a way of encouraging children to find out about news, introducing them to what is going on in the world in a language and format they feel at home with. It was launched six years ago.

3. The desk is aimed at older primary and secondary schools pupils
The desk is aimed at older primary and secondary schools pupils. We file stories every day just like any other daily newsdesk, we follow the main news agenda.
We offer children then news we think they will be interested in and stories we think they should know about.

4. Here’s the first page of our bullying story
Here’s the first page of our bullying story. It’s all about the Beatbullying channel on YouTube – just one of the schemes launched as part of anti-bullying week – which was last week as I’m sure you know!

5. All our stories make use of engaging photographs to pull our users in
All our stories make use of engaging photographs to pull our users in. Difficult words are always defined in a pop up glossary.

6. And we always invite users to have their say on the story

7. Here’s a look at one of those comments in full
Here’s a look at one of those comments in full. The learnnewsdesk is all about student’s views and taking ownership of the news. By the way we don’t correct the grammar and spelling on have your say comments unless the meaning is obscured – it’s more a moderated chat board. More on that later!

8. All our stories have specially written activities in specific subject areas which lesson objectives and curriculum links. The glossary terms are repeated. The screen grab is too small but there area also vetted weblinks at the bottom of this page

9. As you can see here! All our stories have associated podcasts - where we read the story out - so users who aren’t strong readers can listen to the story.

10. You can use the search facility to find other articles or other features in your subject area

11. Or you can go into the PSHE and citizenship area of the subject bank
Or you can go into the PSHE and citizenship area of the subject bank. We put the subjects together because they are joined in primary. But there are many, many pure PSHE activities.

12. Here’s another page. You can see the stories are really varied

13. Here’s another story on disability
Here’s another story on disability. We do deal with difficult subjects – and ones that will trigger discussion

14. And here’s the associated activity
And here’s the associated activity. We actually saw this lesson in action with year 7 group in Bradford last week where the kids really engaged with the story and enjoyed the activity. They read the story the day before then their teacher brought in scarves for the blind man’s buff games.

15. Quite a long one – here are the weblinks
Quite a long one – here are the weblinks. We vet all the weblinks (maybe go onto the creaturediscomforts.org one)

16. I showed you some of the comments by pupils at the end of the bullying article. Here’s the have your say home page. We get so many great comments sent in and it’s really empowering for children to see their comments up on the site. We put up as many as we possibly can, sometimes whole schools take it over for a while!

17. It’s really easy to send a message
It’s really easy to send a message! And you can personalise it with an avatar and colour

18. We’ve got a Be a reporter page as well where students can send in articles.

19. We edit them and lay them out like a news story on the desk
We edit them and lay them out like a news story on the desk. Doncaster local authority are in the middle of a project trying to raise boys’ attainment. Their research with the boys revealed four reasons why boys aren’t doing well: 1. they don’t like handwriting (but like typing),2. don’t like having to write fiction,3. they like to choose the topic 4. like to work in pairs. Reece and Luke who wrote this report are self-declared haters of reading and writing until they were able to use the newsdesk. The boys loved the newsdesk because it ticked all the right boxes. And you can see produced a really decent piece of writing.

20. We also publish lesson packs once a week – where we take an issue and look at it in depth through Guardian article extracts.

21. Subject teachers write all our lessons
Subject teachers write all our lessons. It’s really empowering for children to read an actual Guardian article. Each lesson pack provides a full hours lesson plus homework

22. Long term use of the site generally will expand your pupils’ horizons – and as a consequence their sense of self. Connecting with the world and knowing what goes on is a great builder of self esteem. They can have an opinion – and learnnewsdesk helps to make in an informed one.

23. You want your pupils to grow in confidence and self esteem and to make the most of their abilities – the learnnewsdesk encourages children to think about themselves as citizens of the world

24. They find out about different jobs – and their application in the real world

25. They find about positive role models. If he can do it, why not me?

26. United States research
Middle school children from working class backgrounds who used newspapers once a week scored 29% better tests results. And 62% of adults who remember using newspapers at school are newspaper readers now.
United States research
Research shows that children who read the news do better in exams, and later life.
In the States, 40% of children get newspapers through their school (editions specially written for children. Research show that middle school children from working class backgrounds who used newspapers once a week scored 29% better tests results. And 62% of adults who remember using newspapers at school are newspaper readers now.

27. Your pupils are inheriting the world – so it’s important that they know about it. Learnnewsdesk helps children become engaged with the world – it opens world up – helping your students grow up into informed adults capable of voting and making decision that will affect their future.