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Making an impact

NewsWise continues to strengthen primary pupils’ critical literacy skills, increase their interest in news and develop their confidence when navigating news

In numbers

Academic year 2023/24

4,677

children took part in NewsWise

We trained

444

teachers and educators in news and media literacy for the primary age group

542

family members learned news and media literacy skills with their children in our workshops

63,664

free resources were downloaded

Pupil impact

After taking part in NewsWise in our UK-wide programme in 2023/24:

77%

of pupils would check if news came from a person or source they trust, compared to 26% before

Nearly

Triple

the number of pupils said they were interested in the news

75%

of pupils felt they were better at telling the difference between fact and opinion

I really enjoyed doing NewsWise and it has changed my mind about what I think about news. Now I am thinking about being a journalist.

Pupil

After taking part in NewsWise

Pupils in Birmingham 2022-24

The number who could tell if a news story was real or fake increased from 1 in 3 to

1 in 2

89%

of pupils said they found it easy to tell if a news story was trustworthy, compared to 39% before

83%

of pupils said they now stop, think and check facts before believing a news story

What teachers said

93%

said pupils had increased skills in thinking critically about news stories

97%

said pupils are more likely to use more than one source to check facts

86%

said pupils have increased skills in writing and producing their own news reports

100%

feel more confident in supporting pupils' news literacy

I was learning along with the children when spotting real/fake stories and my teaching of news writing has become forever altered! I will always use real stories and can see so many applications for utilising these real life local events to support writing with a purpose.

Esther Brown

Teacher, Hawes Primary School

In our family workshops

Parents and guardians after taking part in workshops with their children in Birmingham 2022-24

With the growth of social media and the instant access to the internet I think that fake news is becoming more of a problem. The workshop dealt with it in a really informative, fun and mature manner which is important to children at this age.

Parent

After taking part in a family workshop

Triple

the number of parents were very confident in helping their children to spot fake news

97%

were very (66%) or quite (32%) confident in spotting fake news themselves, compared to 65% before

Nearly all

(97%) said they knew more about how to check if news can be trusted and how to check if images online can be trusted

96%

said they knew some good ways to help their children with feelings about news

NewsWise evaluation reports

Read the findings of the recent research trial conducted by the Universities of Birmingham and Liverpool, as well as robust evaluation of the NewsWise programme and its impact, conducted by the National Literacy Trust