It's not the winning, it's the free buffet that counts.

Hello Folks!
I take it you all want to know what I've been up to?

Well, other than being up to ears in chemistry revision and having the Scooone/Scon debate with any one who'll listen (Scooone obviously) I went to the guardian offices and the Amnesty UK headquarters on Wednesday for the young human rights reporter of the year competition! That was 2 days I'll never forget, trust me!

4 Yorkshire girls dive head first in to London culture. Yeah, we got lost, yeah we set a carrier bag on fire with my straightners and yeah we went swimming and walked in on a fully naked woman with a beaver like an afro, but we also had an absolutely amazing time! (Yes, that really did happen, I fear it may have left lasting and irreparable emotional damage)

On the day before the awards we travelled up to London, went swimming and had a lovely Italian at Strada which I thoroughly enjoyed.

On the actual morning of the awards we had a journalistic workshop at the guardian offices and generally got treated like V.I.P's!! (Hey, we even got interviewed on camera!) After the workshop wegot a taxi up to the human rights action centre and heard some extremely inspirational speakers, amongst them was Martin Powell, an amazing performance poet, Jack Shenker, a hilarious and empowering journalist, and the lovely Ellie Crissell (who my 8 year old self desperately longed to meet) an ex-newsround presenter.

I was up against Georgia Gilholy, who wrote a really interesting article about Child Brides, and Alice Renynolds who wrote a a powerful article about labour camps in Vietnam. Unfortunately I was only runner up (Alice Reynolds was the deserving winner) but I'm just really honoured to have been there with the cream of British journalism.
It shows that contrary to what the scaremongerers think, the written word isn't dying out, and when used effectively really has the power to change lives. It was also a beacon of hope in a landscape ravaged by the recent collapse of the Murdoch empire.

So if anyone from amnesty or the guardian happens to be reading this blog, I'd just like to say thank you.

Also, here is a photo of me and Ella at the guardian offices for all you nosey people.

If anyone would like to read about the young human rights reporter competition further, here are some links:

  This is my article, (a copy of it also exists somewhere in the archives of this blog, if you fancy digging round) http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/may/14/human-rights-lower-secondary-award1?intcmp=239 

This an amazing piece the lovely Miss Shah wrote about our time at the guardian. (She deserves a medal!!) http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2012/may/15/teaching-schools?newsfeed=true

This is a piece Emily Drabble ( From the guardian teacher network) wrote abut the winning articles: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/may/14/amnesty-human-rights-reporter-competition?intcmp=239

 And Finally, this is a piece about past, previous and future young human rights reporter competitions, and how to enter the 2013 competition, which I strongly suggest you do! 

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=12085