Denham Village School kids' report at mystery scene

Year three pupils at Denham Village School, Cheap Side Lane in Denham, enjoyed a day of learning about news reporting on Monday, February 7. 

Teacher Melissa Stephens hid artefacts resembling ancient arrowheads surrounded by police tape in the school’s field for the seven and eight-year-olds to discover.

At the scene, the 13-strong class found a Bucks Free Press reporter and a real detective from the Metropolitan Police, Rebecca Ford, who is also a parent at the school. 

Denham Village School children in action as reporters

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Unaware of the buried treasure, the keen children wrote notes from the scene and took photos for their mock reports. 

Head of the school Ms Afsheen Nawaz joined us on the field and said they start all their topics with a hook.

Ms Nawaz said: “Especially when it comes to the act of writing and when it’s such young children our ethos is about giving them an actual purpose for writing so making it as exciting and as life-like as possible.

Excited young reporters at the mystery scene

“For us it’s not just about getting the academic results but it’s about them leaving our school with the life skills they need.

“Children learn the best when they’re engaged with learning.

She said teaching is very much like being on stage and added: “Children are the best of audiences in terms of being able to pick up whether it’s purposeful or not.

“At Primary we carry such a heavy responsibility to ensure that we’re actually paving the way for them.

Denham Village School Year 3 class took pictures and notes for their reports

“Children only get one chance at their education, and they only get one chance at Year three or four.

“Next week we’ve got an actual children’s author come in and do workshops with them on how to write a book.

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Youngsters learning news writing after mysterious scene

“We want the children to see the importance and relevance of these skills because otherwise it’s difficult for some children to be motivated and they’ll just see it as more writing.

“But if they have that purpose the quality of their writing is so much higher.”

Headteacher Afsheen Nawaz outside Denham Village School

Back in the classroom the children put their skills, knowledge and inspiration into use by practicing adding adjectives, alliteration and similes to describe the police scene and sketch the artefacts. 

Clearly the future is bright with children with such a good eye for detail and inspiring teachers.