News report
Report a recent event accurately through audience-aware writing.
Write for the situation
Audience
readers of a school or community news service
Purpose
Report a recent event accurately
Register and tone
Clear and measured; separate reported views from the reporter’s voice
Avoid
Personal campaigning disguised as reporting
Conventions that help the reader
An informative headline; lead with essential facts; organised supporting details; attributed comments; context. These are adaptable guidance: task, audience and purpose decide the choices.
A flexible route through the text
- 1Headline and lead
- 2Key event details
- 3Participant perspectives
- 4Wider context or next development
Language to develop
Choose precise verbs and examples. Connect reasons and consequences, qualify claims when necessary and vary sentence forms without forcing unfamiliar language.
Planning question
Which statements are observations, and which are attributed opinions?
Model extract · Social organization
This original teaching extract shows selected choices. It is shorter than a complete Paper 1 response and is not an IB-marked exemplar.
Students propose peer-mentoring pilot
Student representatives presented a peer-mentoring proposal to the school leadership team on Tuesday. The plan would pair volunteers with new students for a series of shared activities.
The representatives said that newcomers often need help understanding everyday routines as well as finding classrooms. The student-support coordinator welcomed the proposal but said volunteer training and safeguarding arrangements would need to be agreed first.
The leadership team will consider a small pilot before deciding whether to extend the programme.
Read as a writer
Find evidence of the intended reader, purpose and register. Identify a convention that makes the text usable.
Explore the content
Underline an example, reason or practical detail. Explain what it contributes, then develop the next paragraph yourself.
Connect it to each core theme
Identities
Student representatives have presented plans for a multilingual welcome project at a school meeting.
Write a news report for readers of a school or community news service. Report the event, explain the plan and attribute two contrasting viewpoints. Use clearly invented details for this fictional classroom task.
Theme connection: how language choices shape belonging.
Planning focus: Which statements are observations, and which are attributed opinions?
Plan this taskExperiences
Student representatives have presented plans for a student exchange programme at a school meeting.
Write a news report for readers of a school or community news service. Report the event, explain the plan and attribute two contrasting viewpoints. Use clearly invented details for this fictional classroom task.
Theme connection: what students gain from an unfamiliar experience.
Planning focus: Which statements are observations, and which are attributed opinions?
Plan this taskHuman ingenuity
Student representatives have presented plans for an AI-supported language-learning app at a school meeting.
Write a news report for readers of a school or community news service. Report the event, explain the plan and attribute two contrasting viewpoints. Use clearly invented details for this fictional classroom task.
Theme connection: how technology helps learners and where its limits lie.
Planning focus: Which statements are observations, and which are attributed opinions?
Plan this taskSocial organization
Student representatives have presented plans for a school peer-mentoring programme at a school meeting.
Write a news report for readers of a school or community news service. Report the event, explain the plan and attribute two contrasting viewpoints. Use clearly invented details for this fictional classroom task.
Theme connection: how a community can support newcomers.
Planning focus: Which statements are observations, and which are attributed opinions?
Plan this taskSharing the planet
Student representatives have presented plans for a student-led food-waste project at a school meeting.
Write a news report for readers of a school or community news service. Report the event, explain the plan and attribute two contrasting viewpoints. Use clearly invented details for this fictional classroom task.
Theme connection: how individuals and institutions can reduce waste.
Planning focus: Which statements are observations, and which are attributed opinions?
Plan this taskTeach, practise and refine
- Read a real example of this text type and identify its readership and purpose.
- Annotate the model extract, then discuss how a different audience would change its wording.
- Select a theme task. Plan all required actions before writing; develop examples rather than listing them.
- Draft independently, review audience and task coverage, then revise one paragraph.
Teacher language
Which statements are observations, and which are attributed opinions?
Support without fixing every sentence
Offer an audience–purpose planning grid, a few useful connectors and oral rehearsal. Then remove the paragraph openings and ask for independent wording. Extend by developing an alternative viewpoint or a justified qualification.
Self-check
- Have I addressed every instruction?
- Do the reader, purpose, tone and conventions match?
- Does each main idea have a developed example or explanation?
- Have I checked verb forms, reference, spelling and punctuation?