TOM HOWARD / ROYSTON CROW 09/11/07 ST MARYS DIVALI
Pupils were treated to a vibrant Divali presentation in assembly at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School last Thursday.
Divali is the Festival of Light, where light signifies the victory of good over evil within every human being, and is a major religious festival that started as an ancient harvest celebration associated with Hindu legends. It occurred on November 9th.
Dina Mandaria, a devout Hindu, talked to the whole school about Divali and showed artefacts from Hendon’s Mandir temple before answering questions, while staff dressed in traditional Hindu costume to the delight of pupils.
Teacher Gavin Pearce said: “We want to raise awareness and tolerance of other faiths, by involving our children.”
Pupils later made a Divali display, including the Hendon Mandir artefacts which were kindly donated.
St Mary’s is predominantly a Catholic school but teaches children of many different faiths including Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Jews.
The school plans to visit the Stevenage Mosque, and to create links with other faith groups including Cambridge’s Jewish community.
Head-teacher Robert Dunbar said: “Children in today’s society need to be aware of all those in the community and to understand them, as they will all be working together in the future.”
ENDS
Word count: 198
REFLECTIVE REPORT:
The Royston Crow was made aware of this event by means of a two line letter from the headmaster stating what was happening, and including his final quote. The story was delegated to me to follow up by a member of the news team.
No extra details were supplied, so I had to telephone the school and find out who organised it. Once put through to Gavin Pearce, I had to interview him over the phone to get every single detail that eventually went into the story.
I had to take notes largely in longhand, having only just started learning Teeline at the time, which made a phone interview problematic.
Another problem I faced was in finding an appealing angle. School events are common, and not particularly striking sources of groundbreaking news. I settled on the fun and vibrancy that a presentation brings to school life, supported by the event’s educative potential.
By focussing on the event’s vibrancy, I was able to capitalise on the photogenic nature of the Divali celebration, which created good photo opportunities which could be used to produce an exciting peace for publishing.
Divali is also a fairly complex concept, so I had to work hard to reduce its essence into a concise but meaningful paragraph, which was difficult.
I was able to use a four paragraph introduction which detailed the ‘who, what, when where and how’ elements of the story, before structuring the rest of the peace using the journalistic “inverted triangle” method which puts priority material first and lesser information last.
The headmaster’s quote seemed appropriate to end on, as it summed up the purpose of the whole event well.
Word count: 276
An electronic copy of this story, subbed and published, can be found on the Crow’s website here:
Pupils were treated to a vibrant Divali presentation in assembly at St Mary’s Catholic Primary School last Thursday.
Divali is the Festival of Light, where light signifies the victory of good over evil within every human being, and is a major religious festival that started as an ancient harvest celebration associated with Hindu legends. It occurred on November 9th.
Dina Mandaria, a devout Hindu, talked to the whole school about Divali and showed artefacts from Hendon’s Mandir temple before answering questions, while staff dressed in traditional Hindu costume to the delight of pupils.
Teacher Gavin Pearce said: “We want to raise awareness and tolerance of other faiths, by involving our children.”
Pupils later made a Divali display, including the Hendon Mandir artefacts which were kindly donated.
St Mary’s is predominantly a Catholic school but teaches children of many different faiths including Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Jews.
The school plans to visit the Stevenage Mosque, and to create links with other faith groups including Cambridge’s Jewish community.
Head-teacher Robert Dunbar said: “Children in today’s society need to be aware of all those in the community and to understand them, as they will all be working together in the future.”
ENDS
Word count: 198
REFLECTIVE REPORT:
The Royston Crow was made aware of this event by means of a two line letter from the headmaster stating what was happening, and including his final quote. The story was delegated to me to follow up by a member of the news team.
No extra details were supplied, so I had to telephone the school and find out who organised it. Once put through to Gavin Pearce, I had to interview him over the phone to get every single detail that eventually went into the story.
I had to take notes largely in longhand, having only just started learning Teeline at the time, which made a phone interview problematic.
Another problem I faced was in finding an appealing angle. School events are common, and not particularly striking sources of groundbreaking news. I settled on the fun and vibrancy that a presentation brings to school life, supported by the event’s educative potential.
By focussing on the event’s vibrancy, I was able to capitalise on the photogenic nature of the Divali celebration, which created good photo opportunities which could be used to produce an exciting peace for publishing.
Divali is also a fairly complex concept, so I had to work hard to reduce its essence into a concise but meaningful paragraph, which was difficult.
I was able to use a four paragraph introduction which detailed the ‘who, what, when where and how’ elements of the story, before structuring the rest of the peace using the journalistic “inverted triangle” method which puts priority material first and lesser information last.
The headmaster’s quote seemed appropriate to end on, as it summed up the purpose of the whole event well.
Word count: 276
An electronic copy of this story, subbed and published, can be found on the Crow’s website here:
http://www.royston-crow.co.uk/search/story.aspx?brand=ROYWestOnline&category=News&itemid=WEED15%20Nov%202007%2016:49:17:137&tBrand=ROYWestOnline&tCategory=search
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