Assembly Speaker, 27 September
Job Rabkin, Head of Investigations at Channel 4 News
On Monday 27 September, Year 12 and Year 13 had the pleasure of listening to Job Rabkin, Head of Investigations at Channel 4 News. He gave us an engaging talk detailing his job, and then opened up to questions from students, of which there were many and varied.
One memorable example of an investigation Job took part in was an exposition of government handling of the pandemic, including when it was discovered that they were storing expired, ten year old PPE in a warehouse. Another key story was about Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s girlfriend and her involvement in grooming young women for sexual abuse. It was widely believed that all abuse had occurred internationally, but Channel 4 debunked this by discovering that at least 6 victims had come forward to speak about abuse that they had undergone in Britain.
Job also discussed how the development of digital social media has meant that Channel 4 has had to think carefully about the future of their news format. This has meant incorporating social media such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to deliver their news online - with clear success, as they had over half a billion views across social media in 2020, which particularly drew in the under 35s audience. He gave us an inspirational message to engage with the news and get involved with politics, reminding us to be conscious of where we source our information from, and to make sure we consume and share content from reliable providers.
We then began with the Q&A, which had its fair share of controversial topics, from government retaliation to his news stories, to whether he’d ever felt in danger through his reporting of a controversial issue ( he referred very briefly to the Cambridge Analytica expose, the Trump administration and Russia at this point…) to how he felt about rival news outlets such as the BBC, and, most strikingly, ‘Do you think Prince Andrew is lying about his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein?’ To this, Job responded that, although we cannot be certain of the answer to this, it is the case that the prince’s police escorts log every single trip he has ever made but they have never volunteered those records and, we might ask why he has refused to take part in any interviews.
Someone asked whether Job feels that we, as individuals, have the ability to make a tangible difference in society’s institutions - he responded by reminding us that knowledge is power, and Channel 4, just like all other news outlets, has the power to go against the status quo by supplying us with pure, unbiased facts.
All in all, this was definitely an interesting and thought provoking assembly which I’m sure has inspired many journalists and reporters in the making. I look forward to hopefully hearing from Job or other Channel 4 News staff in the future.
Alice, Year13 Senior Prefect
Transition To Adulthood Project
Last term a group of sixth formers took part in the first session of an initiative run by the Health Improvement Team at Camden Borough called Transition to Adulthood. The focus of the remote workshop session was Building Mental Resilience. We were taught multiple methods on how to handle stressful situations and were also shown examples of how to help others in these circumstances. We were introduced to the Stress Bucket Analogy which helped us measure our stress tolerance and then were taught different acronyms which provide us with steps on how to manage stress and help to prevent buildup.
On Monday we were delighted to meet the team in person and participate in the second part of the workshop called Being Health Aware. We had the opportunity to meet a doctor from Barnet Hospital who shared with us professional knowledge on how to handle Medical Emergencies. He was accompanied by two other GP’s and a Health and Wellbeing expert in Camden who works with children of all age groups. The team gave us an insight into assessing medical concerns and informed us on how important it is to be aware of how to handle emergencies.
We learnt that an emergency was any incident where there was any form of urgent risk of life and when help is needed immediately. We recognised that one of the key elements of identifying an emergency was to check for blocked airways to prevent any suffocation of the patient. We were taught many techniques including the ABC technique (Airways, Breathing, Circulation), Head tilt/ Chin Lift, Recovery position and Jaw Thrust. All these methods were demonstrated to us and made us feel more confident if we were to face any emergency situations in the future.
Overall we really enjoyed the talk and appreciated all the procedures we were taught and feel better equipped to deal with certain medical emergencies should we come across them. We look forward to meeting with the Camden Health Improvement team again later this year for our final session to learn more about Being Health Aware
Mahfuza, Year 13