News coming alive for kids

Tomorrow the Herald launches a new education programme, called NewsEd. The programme, mainly for children aged 5 to 8, aims to make current events come alive.

Every Tuesday the NewsEd page will feature stories and pictures about current events that interest young people, along with suggestions for further activities.

Content is linked to the national curriculum in primary schools and teachers will be able to use NewsEd to stimulate class discussion and activity.

Schools signing up to the programme receive newspapers to use in the classroom and gain access to a supporting website (see link below), for curriculum links, background material, teaching suggestions and answers to the quizzes.

You'll find NewsEd on the back of the Travel section.

Our popular publication for secondary school students, the College Herald, also starts again tomorrow.

This year we're producing it in a fresh, new tabloid format to showcase students' work. And there will be more editions, running on 19 Tuesdays throughout terms two and three.

Each week there's a main theme for students to explore, plus the freedom to write on any topic they choose and to send in photographs and graphics.

College Herald editor David Lawrence will choose 20 pieces of work for publication each week and select two of them as the Editor's Choice. Selected pieces on the weekly theme will win students a Canon Powershot S60 digital camera and their schools a Woosh modem plus a year's free internet connection. Selected pieces on a general theme will earn students a Bank of New Zealand bank account with an opening balance of $300. The remaining 18 students will receive a BNZ bank account with an opening balance of $100.

The College Herald is sponsored by Woosh Wireless, Bank of New Zealand, AA Driver Training, Norske Skog, Canon, HP New Zealand, Unitec, Whitcoulls.

Today, primary and intermediate school students are also starting work on the Herald's Make A Newspaper programme.

During term two, children and teachers in hundreds of schools will be busy creating a 12-page newspaper.

Participating schools receive a number of free resources, including a template, a resource book and complimentary newspapers every day for 10 weeks in term two. The newspapers are judged and the top five primary and top five intermediate schools will be awarded $5000 each.

The Make a Newspaper programme and NewsEd programmes are sponsored by: Whitcoulls, 5+ A Day in partnership with Foodtown/Woolworths, Sky Tower, Purina Petcare, TV One/Zone, New Zealand Soccer and the Small Whites programme, HP NZ, Wattie's and NZ Trade and Enterprises.