Thousands of schools in Britain will log on to Learnnewsdesk today and see its fresh new look and feel. It now offers podcasts, news in pictures and a news ticker. The popular site continues to provide its core service: news of the day and curriculum-linked activities for older primary and secondary pupils.
Pupils can submit their own written or podcast news stories or comments to the readers’ message boards, moderated by the newsdesk editors.
Learnnewsdesk is also available in Northern Ireland and Scotland, with additional regional stories. On the Scottish news desk, the regional stories are translated into and podcast in Gaelic.
Produced by learn.co.uk, a division of Guardian Professional, learnnewsdesk already has approximately 5,000 school subscribers. Head of learn.co.uk, Lucy Haire says, “Learnnewsdesk supports many of the requirements of the latest curricula, for example real-life problem solving, speaking and writing for an audience and using media sources for topic analysis. Teachers tell us that the newsdesk, with its stories, daily votes and quizzes, encourages a daily reading habit even among reluctant readers"