Teenagers Sekai and Klarisse went to sunny Bournemouth to take part in the Sky News media event Reach For The Sky LIVE. Here's what they thought...
| When Graham made us hold up our right arms, wave madly and yell “Wa Heeeeeeeeeey”, we thought the man was nuts. |
We weren’t quite sure what we were letting ourselves in for when we signed up to spend the last few days of our precious holidays “Reaching for the Sky” in Bournemouth of all places!
After dragging ourselves out of bed at the ungodly hour of 5am, we spent the train journey flicking through the itinerary. With naff phrases like “Hi from Sky” and “remember to bring your disco clothes” we felt like asking the driver to turn the train around.
Were we about to spend the next two days being patronised by a bunch of crinklies who knew nothing of what “we’re” all about?
We arrived at a deserted university campus just outside of Bournemouth feeling nervous and apprehensive.
A really bubbly guy, with a name tag reading Elvis, bounced down the stairs to greet us and lead us into a big sports hall full of 148 teenagers squirming around on the floor. It took us a few minutes to realise they were in the middle of a team building exercise.
The next thing that struck us was the number of (or lack of) black faces in the room. Being two black girls from London amongst a group of mostly white teenagers, we immediately felt as though we stood out like sore thumbs.
Our fear only increased when a Liverpudlian with a booming voice, called Graham, stood up and launched into a pep talk: “Guys, these are gonna be the best two days of your lives,” he screamed.
When he made us hold up our right arms, wave madly and yell “Wa Heeeeeeeeeey”, we thought the man was nuts. At that point it felt more like we were heading for the most embarrassing two days of our lives – not the best!
But we persevered and when Graham started telling us that “each and every one of us was important “ and that we could achieve whatever we wanted, our opinion of him started to change.
He gained even more respect when he told us it didn’t matter what colour we were – black, white or green with spots, we were all equal. Maybe this guy was talking sense after all.
We spent the morning playing ice-breaking games and getting to know one another. Despite our earlier embarrassment at taking part in the games, we soon discovered they were really fun and that they actually relaxed us.
It was a good way of feeling comfortable before moving onto the nitty gritty - journalism, which is what we were there to learn about. And although we’d been planning to stay together throughout the event, by the time we started the workshops we were more than happy to go our separate ways with our newfound Sky buddies.
There were four workshops over the two days including radio, television presenting, print and an introduction to the legal side of journalism.
Coming from Children’s Express where we’d both worked on loads of stories and even interviewed politicians and pop stars, we were worried it was going to be a bit repetitive. How wrong we were.
Our favourite session was radio. We did everything from making our own jingle, to writing scripts and recording the whole programme. We liked learning how to use a mini-disc player and found it fun presenting our own radio show.
In the print session, we produced a whole magazine in an hour. It was good practice to be given a deadline and having to meet it. We also got to write about issues that we were interested in and had the opportunity to be editor of a team.
As part of the television workshop, we got to the chance to feel what it’s really like in the studio by putting together our very own Sky News Bulletin. We all took turns at reading the news, floor management, vision mixing and sound. It was great fun seeing ourselves on TV but oh my goodness, we didn’t realise how strange we looked and sounded.
The final session called “Scandal” did seem to drag on a bit but we enjoyed meeting the Sky News presenter, Julie Etchingham and it was good to learn a bit about the legal and moral do’s and don’ts of a news room.
Although the workshops were pretty full on and quite long, there was still plenty of time for fun.
We’d actually been dreading dragging out our “dancing shoes” but even enjoyed shocking it out to the Keith Edwards Mobile disco! However, he could’ve played a few more R’n B tunes to please the contemporary music lovers of the world.
We were also pretty impressed with the fact that the adults running the event trusted us enough to give us our own student house. We felt like we were in Brookside Close, with Graham’s accent only adding to the illusion.
The two days ended with a big finale, with each and every one of us taking centre stage in a packed lecture theatre. When we’d been warned about this at the beginning of the event, we were petrified and thought there’d be no way we’d be up on the stage. But with the support of our guides and the group, not to mention the party atmosphere in the room, it was a breeze.
Reach for the Sky Live is an absolutely fantastic experience which we’d recommend to anyone, not only because of the workshops but also because you get to meet loads of people your own age. You’re also guaranteed to come away feeling good about yourself.
We had thought that the main focus of the event would be learning about journalism, entertainment and sport but there was just as much emphasis on motivation and believing in ourselves.
By the end of it all we were tired but very happy and although we can’t say it was the “best” two days of our lives, we’ve got to admit it came pretty close. We left proudly clutching our Reach for the Sky goodie bags, waving “Wa Heeeeeeeeeey” all the way back to London without a drop of embarrassment."
About the team
This story was produced by Sekai Makoni, 15, and Klarisse Osei, 15. It was published on the Sky News Reach for the Sky website..
