Brian's Test Blog

In hosting the Q&A session with Adrian Chiles in the sixth form centre back in December, Ollie and I both received extensive advice and support from him on how to establish yourself in the ever-changing industry of Journalism. Adrian also promised us the chance to go to a live ITV match production to see how the actual material we see on our screens gets put together. He was true to his word and before we knew it we were making our way up the M6 to see the FA cup sixth round encounter between Everton and Wigan Athletic. We were told to meet him at the broadcast trucks in the stadium car park and at 10.30AM we had arrived. Adrian took us on a brief tour of the two major trucks in which ITV were operating and introduced us to a few important people before he had to go to the studio to begin rehearsing. All of the production staff were very friendly and enlightened us to the countless logistics behind producing a two hour transmission. The first broadcast truck housed around 20 people...

"What you’re doing is what we’re doing…Investigating" In an effort to understand what being a Police officer involves, ATS Press invited PC Farrington and PC Smith from West Midlands Police into school to provide us with an insight into Policing on the Four Oaks front line. The main line of questioning was about what the ‘average day in the life’ of a Police officer entails. However, as the officers shared their experiences of: neighbourhood noise, dramatic car chases, breaking and entering and visiting the elderly for tea and talk; it soon became apparent, that there is no such thing. Neighbourhood officers PC Farrington and Smith deal on a daily basis with community issues, this involves: neighbourhood disputes, abandoned vehicles, traffic collisions and liaising with the council. As well as, this they offer open surgery sessions for members of the public at ‘The Hub’ and communicate with local landlords as part of ‘Pub Watch’. In fact, PC Farrington stated that “a lot ...

On 1st of February the Arthur Terry BBC School Report team were lucky enough to get the chance to interview Sir Christopher Stone, the Executive Head teacher at the school. The main line of questioning was about his recent Knighthood; however the team also took the opportunity to ask several questions about how he managed to reach such a unique and outstanding point in his career and what had motivated him to do so. His open and honest responses and positivity were engaging throughout. Sir Christopher started by sharing how he views schools, based on his experience as a child and an adult, he likened schools to families, big extended families where people, keep people safe and are nice to one another, getting the best out of them. His wisdom and optimism was compelling and in response to a question about determination and confidence he talked about self believe, courage, and doing the right thing for the right reasons. "Not being remembered" is something that is feared by man...

On the 12th December, Adrian Chiles took a break from his busy schedule to come and talk to BBC school reporters, Lauren, Josh, Sophia and Amy, at the Arthur Terry School. From speaking to him, students found that he ‘fell into journalism/broadcasting' as a result of his footballing accident that led to his leg being severely broken in two places. At this time, there were two significant events occurring, one of them being the Gulf War, the other being the resignation of the then Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, with the news endlessly broadcasting it suddenly seemed like a potential career choice. When asked if broadcasting had changed him, he indicated that it has not changed him as a person, but the fame had affected his life in a way that had led to him being mobbed by the public in everyday life situations. When asked about the Leveson Inquiry he said ‘the press took advantage of their freedom of speech and abused the privacy of others'. Regarding questions upon the care...