Wednesday 24 January 2018 Would-be journalist Lauren McGaun Y12 has received a boost to her aspirations with the latest piece of her work to appear in print. Lauren is the first student to have her work published in this year’s Young Reviewers Scheme, run by Harrogate Theatre in association with the Harrogate Advertiser to mentor young writers with an interest in reviewing. Participating students from schools around the area are invited to be in the audience for selected shows at the theatre during the year and submit their reviews. The students receive feedback on their work from theatre staff and reporters, and one ‘star review’ is chosen for publication in the Harrogate Advertiser. As it’s pantomime season, the first show seen by the young reviewers was of course Beauty and the Beast. In Lauren’s winning review, published in the Harrogate Advertiser last week, she introduces the show saying: “The classic tale of girl meets beast with a modern French and Yorkshire twist, makes for one of the most hilarious and accessible performances in pantomime history.” Lauren already has experience of writing for the local press, having previously written several articles for the Yorkshire Evening Post’s ‘Young Voices’. Her articles covered a range of interesting topics, which Lauren had to research, form opinions on and write up within the word count and on time. She said: “Writing reviews is new to me, it’s quite different to writing articles, and the advice from the theatre staff and journalists is very helpful. Like on the YEP scheme, the opportunity to meet professional journalists and ask questions is really useful.” After her A-levels, Lauren hopes to study politics at university before postgraduate training in journalism. Meanwhile she is learning as much as she can about the media through the school’s Media Society, and working on a social action project on mental health awareness for the National Citizen Service Youth Board. General Senior School Sixth Form News
