It was blast off for Year 4 pupils from Divine Saviour Primary School in Abbots Langley as their playground became the scene for an extraordinary news story.
On Monday, January 19, a UFO had crashed into the school sandpit, and a mysterious alien was spotted, sparking excitement among the pupils.
The exercise was part of a classroom project, designed to teach the children about newspaper reporting and investigative journalism.
Props such as police tape, a crutch, and glitter from outer space were found on the ground, as students used their journalist thinking to inspect the scene.
Eight-year-old Seb shared his findings with ABBOTSnews: “The alien was green and really big. We got many messages from the neighbours who live close to the school. They said there was a lot of noise and bright lights, too.”
After collecting several pieces of evidence, pupils returned to their classroom chairs inspired by the scene and ready to use their pens and paper.
Year 4 teacher Ms Ryan guided the class through each step of formatting their own news articles, starting with asking key probing questions, such as “When?”, “Where?”, and “Why?”
However, some pupils were not entirely convinced that the alien presented to them was real or if it was the clever work of AI.
One pupil shared with ABBOTSnews: “I have loved learning about how to write stories, but I am not sure if the alien is real or fake.”
Despite the controversy surrounding the alien, pupils managed to work together as a class and uncover the key facts by critical thinking. The core qualities of which any great journalist requires.
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