CONTRASTING topics of a local industry of the past and up-to-date news reporting are being studied by students taking part in a Blackburn summer literacy school.

A group of youngsters about to enter Pleckgate High School are getting a head start on their studies by linking up with our Newpapers in Education project.

Our Super Story literacy materials, including a daily delivery of our newpaper for every pupil, plus a visit to our head office and printing plant and a full day of report writing and newspaper making have given students a taste of life in the media industry.

Pupils' own reports of their newspaper visit include - "We found that photographs could be altered on a computer screen to make people look strange, but that they would never print them in the paper like this", from 11 year old Kevin Wilkinson, while classmate Paul Hitchen wrote that he was "especially interested in the way printing plates are made and how some pages are printed in full colour." Another project brought the past to life when a short walk from school took pupils to look at cottages once the homes of hand-loom weavers. A study of an early nineteen century census return and a diary kept by a resident, James Read in 1841 revealed details of conditions at that time.

"We found out that people lived mostly on potatoes, onions and porridge", reports Safeera Natha and Nasreen Khan, "so we decided to make similar food ourselves. The porridge was not very nice with only salt to flavour it as they wouldn't have used sugar."

More visits and activities are planned by the summer school staff to complete the two-week course.

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