Sixth Form Media students were recently visited by Duncan Leatherdale, Senior Reporter for the Northern Echo. Duncan came to King James to talk about his experience of journalism as a career and to offer practical advice on how to write an effective magazine article; this will help students in their current BTEC unit.

Working with Media Teacher, Mrs Davies, students are currently looking at page layout and design, a unit which involves writing a magazine article and developing skills in editing and proofreading, alongside image manipulation and graphic design. These combined skills will result in a finished magazine spread, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of the online youth magazine, "Exclaimer'.

"Writing a good magazine article is a real skill," said Mrs Davies, "but hopefully, with Duncan's advice on how to write an attention-grabbing intro and his tips on maintaining reader interest, our students will produce some exciting written pieces."

As part of the session, Mr Leatherdale also discussed his route into journalism and his experience of the industry, answering questions about how he got his first job and talking frankly about some of his most memorable articles; this was particularly interesting for our aspiring journalists.

We would like to thank Duncan and the Northern Echo for their support.