PUPILS at Victoria Academy are the first to get the chance to sample a new sports journalism project being run by the Barrow AFC in the Community, writes Liam Bewsher.

The community team, headed up by former Victoria Academy teacher Craig Rutherford, began the project on Monday and will be bringing it to 11 other schools in the area.

The sessions will bring different aspects of sports journalism into the classroom, including interviews, match commentary and newspaper reporting.

The project will consist of four lessons in each school, comprising one session to develop pre and post-match interview techniques, one to develop commentary skills and one for newspaper reporting.

Before the final lesson of the project, a school football match will be organised at Barrow AFC’s Holker Street ground. The class will then be split into groups of interviewers, commentators, reporters and players.

As the match is being played each group will be performing their tasks, including sitting in the ground’s press box for added realism of working on a live match. On the final session,the reporters will complete their newspaper reports and the rest will produce a recount of the project.

It is hope the project will help enhance pupil’s vocabulary and their writers voice, along with raising literacy aspirations and showing them real-life applications for those skills.