On November 14th, the BBC visited Manchester Academy to work with Year 8 students.

They worked with a Newswatch journalist called Ian Jolly. As I interviewed him I was told that he is a part of a programme called Newswatch which is part of BBC News 24.

He also said how he was going to show the students of Manchester Academy all that goes on behind the scenes on a news programme.

He had shown the Year 8 class, clips of the regional news and invited the students to discuss the fact that there were very few newsreaders with such accents working in the top jobs at "The Beeb".

He noted that a close personal friend of his, Adrian Chiles was one of the few exceptions who had made it to the top despite having a "Brummy accent." A Brummy is a person from Birmingham and the Midlands of England.

They filmed the class discussing this issue. There was plenty to film: the students had a lot of ideas and many things to say. Ian Jolly said he was impressed by the students' ideas and was eager to see what his boss's response to the project will be.

I then interviewed the teacher of the class, Mr. Crowley an English and Drama teacher.

He told me that the class had been working on languages, accents and dialects and that he thought it would be a great opportunity for his Year 8 class to know how things actually work on a news project.

The students got on with the work and had a fun time with the activities that had been arranged for them and with the filming. Mr Crowley said that it was also a great opportunity and the students learnt a bit more about how things work behind the scenes.

The programme should air [be on TV] within the next two weeks on BBC News 24.

By Aliyah, Manchester Academy