Year 9 students visit the BBC at Media City

On a rainy Thursday morning in December a group of 13 year 9 students visited the BBC at their new location, Media City in Salford Quays. The visit was arranged as part of the BBC’s ‘Celebrate Sport’ event to coincide with the opening of the National Football Museum in Manchester next year.

The day began with a session at the Imperial War Museum where the students took part in a workshop which looked at World War One. Students had a chance to examine artefacts from the war, ranging from gas masks through to personal letters sent by soldiers to their families at home. It was also a chance for students to reflect on the role played by women during the war and how life continued at home.

Next, the students walked back to Media City and first of all listened to female TV football commentator Jacqui Oatley talk about different career paths into broadcasting and the range of jobs available. After this there were a range of activities for the students to try out which used ICT, including presenting Newsround, commentating ‘live’ on the men’s 100m Olympic final and managing a football team. In between activities the students could look at some of the exhibits which will be on display at the National Football Museum when it opens on the site of the old Urbis centre in Manchester next year. The exhibits included the football used in the 1966 World Cup final, a signed shirt worn by George Best, Eric Cantona’s Spitting Image puppet and John Motson’s sheepskin coat!

After lunch the students took part in a radio play recreating the famous football match played by the Germans and the English on Christmas Day 1915. Following this, we walked over to the University of Salford to take part in a range of ‘hands on’ activities designed to measure your fitness against that of a professional footballer. This included a reaction time test and a leg and upper body strength test – congratulations to Charlotte Monte who proved to be the equal of a professional footballer with her reaction time!

All in all it was a day packed with activities and events which the students really got a lot out of and will help them with their study of World War 1 in history which they have just started.