Enthusiastic students at The King Alfred School Academy have this week launched a new state-of-the-art Jill Dando News Centre to report on inspirational children, people and events to the wider community.
Jill’s brother Nigel gave the first ever Jill Dando Lecture at the centre this week, which will become an annual event, giving tips on journalism and encouraging students to find more good news.
The centre, themed ‘good news worldwide’, has been set up in memory of Jill Dando, an inspirational and successful journalist born in Weston-Super-Mare, who died in April 1999 aged only 37.
Other centres were launched in Jill’s old school, Worle Community School, and Priory Community School over the past year.
Now her legacy lives on with good news stories coming out of the schools, found and written by the students themselves.
The new centre will further help boost positivity, literacy, and well-being.
It is an exciting time for the centre to be launched, with months of good news coming out of the school and excellent GCSE results.
Year 10 student Izzy Simmons said: “As part of this assembly of talented people, I feel privileged to be part of it and I look forward to the future of the Jill Dando News Team.”
English teacher Ali Wray, said: “This is such an amazing venture. Today was fantastic and I am looking forward to all our future events. The students were incredible and today will be an event they remember for ever.”
Principal Nathan Jenkins added: “It has been a wonderful year for The King Alfred School Academy and this is a tremendous way to end it. The students are so excited to find all the good news stories out of their school.”
