Students attend sports media workshop

Nine budding sports journalists from Year 13 at Dronfield Henry Fanshawe School recently attended a one-day Sports Media Workshop at Chesterfield’s Proact Stadium.

The workshop, which was delivered by the club’s head of media & communications, Nick Johnson, focused on helping the students improve their written and verbal communication skills.

After attending a pre-match press conference attended by manager Danny Wilson, the students held their own press conference featuring player/coach Ritchie Humphreys and quizzed him about his long playing career and role as chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA).

The group gained an insight into the demands of being a professional sportsman, as well as learning more about the role of the PFA.

Taz Smith and Ben Brady, who were among the students who took part in the workshop, wrote a summary of the day for the school’s ‘Spilled Ink’ newspaper, which included the following:-

“The hands-on experience included being taught how to write short, sports-related articles and being educated on how to commentate on football matches.

“We were shown a well-worked Chesterfield goal and were then asked to attempt a professional commentary over it. Whilst this task seemed daunting and challenging, the students remained enthusiastic and returned with superb and highly entertaining results.

“The group unanimously enjoyed their outing and were grateful for the opportunity to witness first-hand how media has an effect on a wider context, such as sport. It was also incredibly useful to see how important communication and writing skills are.”

Photography: Tina Jenner