Young Speakers Live

Because the newsroom gives children and teenagers something to speak for. For younger participants, it gives speaking a clear purpose; for older ones, it becomes a place to test ideas in conversation. Across five days, they learn to organise a thought, ask useful questions, explain a point of view, listen closely, and respond when the conversation changes.

Nothing needs to be prepared or memorised before they arrive. Their material is discovered, tested and developed in the room through drama, role play, interviews, reports, commentaries and guided rehearsal. Younger participants begin in pairs and small groups, so every child has time to test what they want to say before sharing it with a larger audience.

Each workshop runs Monday to Friday, 3 hours each day. In The Holiday Newsroom (ages 8–11), the assignment board is empty and the Friday deadline is set: children choose what story their newsroom needs to investigate, then follow leads, interview characters and decide how the story should be reported. In Voices of the Year (ages 12–15), the editorial meeting has begun but the Friday edition has no stories: participants decide what deserves attention, why it matters and how it should be spoken to an audience. By Friday, the group has created a live newsroom sharing for families.

Young Speakers Live gives participants hands-on practice in the skills oral communication asks for. In The Holiday Newsroom, children practise finding the who, what, when, where, why and how of a story, turning notes into a clear spoken report, asking follow-up questions and explaining an opinion with clear reasons and examples. In Voices of the Year, participants practise pitching a subject, structuring a focused commentary, conducting an interview without a fixed script and moderating a discussion. Throughout, they speak in their own words and learn to stay with their ideas when questioned.

For the final 30 minutes on Friday, families are invited into the workshop space to watch the live newsroom sharing created by the participants: 12:00pm to 12:30pm for morning workshops, and 5:00pm to 5:30pm for afternoon workshops.