“For 50 years Newsround has been an iconic part of Children’s TV and continues to inform, educate and entertain the children of today. We are so proud to see it reach this milestone and we look forward to watching it flourish for the children of tomorrow,” added Patricia Hidalgo, Director of BBC Children’s.
As part of its anniversary celebrations, it will be bringing back the Newsround Press Pack Scheme, which originally ran in the 1980s. It offered young journalists a chance to join its team as a reporter and tell the stories that mattered to them.
The 2022 Press Pack Club will encourage “Newshounders” to write and produce articles for the website and film their own reports to appear in the bulletin.
A new BSL version of the show will air from this Spring. Each weekday the online bulletin will include a sign language interpreter. In the “near future” transcribed subtitles will also be introduced.
The Salford team has also commissioned a series of Newsround Specials.
In Empire and Me, presenter De-Graft Mensah will travel to Ghana as he discovers his heritage and roots. He’ll see the key places that were instrumental to the history of the British Empire and along the way, he’ll discover parts of Ghana that are still affected by the Empire and speak to children there about their experiences.
Our Queen, will look at the 70 year reign of the Queen through the eyes of children. This will be accompanied by interactive digital content on the reign of The Queen, for use by children both at school and at home.
On Newsround’s anniversary, CBBC and BBC iPlayer will air Let’s Talk About Sexism which sees presenter Lauren Layfield return on a mission to address the issue of sexism.
There will be a special extended Newsround bulletin on CBBC and iPlayer. As well as the day’s stories, it will include interviews with past and current presenters talking about what the show means to them.
