summer school

The sixth annual YJA summer school will take place in the first week of August 2011 in Canary Wharf

During the intense, week-long programme, students learn all the tricks of the trade from a wide variety of top journalists. Past speakers have included Decca Aitkenhead (the Guardian), Matthew Syed (The Times), Dean Piper (Sunday Mirror), Simon Nixon (Wall Street Journal) and Mark Henderson (The Times) .

Each year, one participant is awarded the Dave Hallsworth Memorial Prize for the best individual over the course of the week. The 2010 winner was Lorna Heap. Camille St-Omer won in 2009, and Sean Robinson was the very first winner back in 2008.

During the summer school, all the participants set up blogs that are monitored and judged by a Times journalist. In 2010, Tom Whitwell, assistant editor at The Times, chose his favourites. You can check out the winners here.

Watch a short film about the summer school:

About the Summer School

There are sessions, led by professional journalists, on how to write concise news reports, hard-hitting comment pieces and insightful cultural reviews. The summer school combines inspirational seminars and practical workshops with individual and group exercises.

Students get a broad overview of the media industry and the different forms of journalism within it. They also get the chance to visit the headquarters of high-profile media organisations, such as the BBC, the News of the World and Reuters.

The YJA summer school is currently open to 16-to 18-year-old London state schools only. Unfortunately, we cannot accept students from outside London boroughs at present. However, our aim is to expand the programme to allow aspiring reporters from outside London to participate in future years.

Past summer schools

To get a flavour of the hectic and exciting schedule of activities we run each year, see our past programmes for 2008, 2009, and 2010 [all pdf format].

Why journalism?

Journalism is an increasingly important area: it offers the opportunity to influence public opinion and make your voice heard. It is a difficult area to get into, however, often depending on ‘who you know’ rather than ‘what you know’. This programme is an opportunity for young Londoners to gain invaluable journalistic experience and win an audience for their writing - perhaps going on to become the opinion formers of the future.