Students launch new school newspaper

Sarah Rennie - When six enterprising students at Heritage Elementary School in Huntingdon approached their teacher with the goal of publishing a school newspaper, Miss Lexie Tucker agreed enthusiastically. The first edition of The Cheetah rolled off the press this past week and was sent home in student backpacks with the school newsletter. "I toyed with the idea last year but never did it,” says Miss Tucker, who was quite pleased with the enthusiasm the students brought to the project. Grade 5 students Audrey Roberge, Grace MacDonald, Hallie McLean, and Eve-Marie Nicole, as well as grade 2 student Taylor McLean, and grade six student, Paasa Gauthier-Adams, are all especially dedicated to the newspaper, sacrificing one lunch hour per week to put the paper together. “We discussed ideas for the name, font choices, topics, trivia, games and comics,” says Miss Tucker, who suggests the name reflects the school’s mascot, the cheetah. The first edition took a few weeks to assemble, with each student contributing content while Miss Tucker worked on the layout. For the December edition, Miss Tucker is hoping to be able to transfer some of the layout work and decisions to the students as well so they can all learn new skills. When asked whether she was surprised by the implication of her students in the project, she smiled. “Not at all. I find the students generally like to get involved and do different projects.” For the students, the experience to date as a newspaper team has been quite rewarding. “It went great,” says Paasa Gauthier-Adams, of the roll-out for the first edition. “I think everybody liked it,” added Eve-Marie Nicole, of the reception it received from fellow students. With December rapidly approaching, the team is already busy thinking about the many ways they can integrate Christmas into the newspaper content for the next edition.