The Star inspires young pupils

Pupils at Woodseats Primary School, who are taking part in The Star’s Reader Passport challenge, picked the heartwarming tale as their favourite from the paper’s pages.

Ekinsu Ibishukcu, Khalid Edwards and Daisy Deakin, all aged 10, gave their views on the project, which is helping children across the city boost their literacy while gaining an insight into the newspaper industry.

Ekinsu and Khalid both enjoyed reading how a grandmother had hugged the burglar who broke into her home and then written him a Christmas card, after he apologised in person for his actions.

Ekinsu said: “That was my favourite story. It draws me in because it’s like a question to which I want to know the answer.”

Khalid said: “My favourite was the same because you wouldn’t really do that and I really wanted to read it.”

Pupils at Woodseats have been reading The Star and completing tasks inspired by what they have found, including creating a newspaper advert for their school.

Daisy said she had enjoyed learning more about newspapers.

“We’ve looked through and seen the adverts and seen why they’re put in there and how it works and makes money,” she said.

All three said they had not paid much attention to local news in the past but now appreciated its importance.

Khalid said: “It makes us aware if there’s something bad around us or good around us, like if there’s a very nice restaurant it would be good to check out.”

Daisy said: “I think it’s important because it makes you aware of things happening around you. If there’s something that’s dangerous you’re aware and know what to do about it.”

Ekinsu agreed, adding newspapers were different to the fiction books they usually read because newspapers ‘give you facts’ rather than just ‘tell stories’.