Hi, we are Anaiya and Laura from grade 6-4. If you’re in grade 6, then you might have noticed something that has been “buzzing” around the classes: The Grade 6 Buzz. We just released the first edition so read more to see what’s buzzing about The Buzz!

How did ‘The Buzz’ come about?
Our teacher, Ms Yakoob, noticed that we were very interested in writing so she asked us to write the midweek update. This midweek update is a Seesaw post that is released every Wednesday to update parents and students on what we’ve been working on. We used to have a rotation of students who would come up with an idea for the update each week and we would help them write and edit it. Sadly, the midweek update got canceled so we were disappointed. Ms Yakoob then showed us last year’s newsletter ‘The Grade 6 Times’ - and that got us excited! 

Why did we name our newsletter 'The Buzz'?
We were looking for a good name for our newsletter. We were reading a list of ideas and one jumped out at us. It was ‘The Buzz’ and we thought that it would catch our readers’ attention. Plus, it would be great for making cheesy puns! Not to mention, being in the last year of primary school with the PYP (Primary Years Programme) Exhibition around the corner, we’re busy like buzzing bees. 

How did we come up with the content for the newsletter?
We wanted to give our grade a voice and while we got a lot of our content ideas from last year’s student newsletter, ‘The Grade 6 Times’, we listened to what the other grade 6 students had to say. We decided to include various types of articles, so it would be interesting and accessible to all students to read and contribute to. We asked our fellow grade 6s what they would like to see in a newsletter and some of the responses included movie reviews, comic strips and pictures of the month. 

What kind of challenges did you run into while creating the newsletter?
We were initially not sure about how frequently we will publish the newsletter. In the end, we decided to do it monthly. Because we received a lot of article submissions in the first edition, we were also worried that the second edition wouldn’t have any one submitting but so far, that doesn’t seem to be the case! Everyone has been extremely enthusiastic about it.

What new skills did we pick up? 
Ms Yakoob talks to us about student action and agency all the time, but we realised that it doesn’t always have to be on a global platform. We can still make small changes in our daily lives and action can take place on a personal or community level. What better way to take action than to come together as a grade and communicate what matters to us the most? 

Why did we decide to recruit contributors for our newsletters?
We thought that if we did it ourselves it wouldn’t be the ‘Grade 6 Buzz’, so we decided anyone and everyone could contribute to ‘The Buzz’. We wanted to give everyone a voice. We also wanted to include students who had any sort of artistic talent or abilities in other languages, which is where the idea for a bilingual article, picture of the month, and comic strips blossomed. 

What are our future plans for 'The Buzz'?
We want people to keep contributing!  We want to continue to give grade 6s a voice and come up with new ideas and articles to include in the newsletter. More importantly, though, we hope that the next batch of grade 6s will be inspired like us and see value in having ‘The Buzz’ around!

The Buzz is something we are very passionate about and proud of. We all work hard in making it perfect, we enjoy editing and turning the students’ articles into a newsletter. We hope future grade 6s will continue with the newsletter and that The Buzz continues to buzz around the school!