Fashion! Turn to the left!

Your students will experience a fashion shoot from make-up to styling to studio lighting and live images on screen.

Students will be styling and photographing models in a photo shoot. Making sure they get THE image.

They will take away a colour copy of their image plus insight into the creative and visual world of fashion photography. 

Duration: 2 hours
Maximum number of students: 6

Online, on camera, on air

Your students can become a multimedia journalist in this hands-on, half-day session. The will receive expert training from real-life journalists to create their own stories for TV, radio, and social media. Activities include:

  • Voice training
  • Presenting TV and radio bulletins
  • Filming and editing a news report for social media

With an emphasis on news production in a real-world context, this session is designed to feed into GCSE, BTEC and A-Level media and humanities courses. Students will come away with a taste of the skills taught on a Journalism degree course at Solent.

Duration: 3 hours (including a break)
Maximum number of students: 25

Life as a journalist

Interview Rihanna or Meghan! Cover F1 or the World Cup! Investigate corruption! Meet your heroes! 

Journalism is probably the most dynamic career there is. Journalists travel the globe reporting on this amazing, complex world. We meet film stars, challenge politicians, cover the Olympics...

A journalism degree teaches crucial multimedia skills – but analysis too. Our graduates are not only confident, but articulate, ready to take powerful positions not only in journalism but a range of rewarding professions.

In this interactive session an experienced journalist – and member of the Solent team – will give your students the inside scoop on this exciting industry – and how they can be a part of it! 

Duration: 30-60 minutes (flexible)

Cover star

Get your face on the cover of a magazine! It might be Cosmo or Vogue, i-D or GQ, Empire or FourFourTwo.

Whether it’s music, fashion, movies or sport, the power of the celebrity portrait will never die. We’ll take a studio portrait of your students and make them the cover star of their favourite magazine.

How do they style the portrait? And how do they come up with all those catchy headlines that surround them?

We’ll teach your students. And they’ll walk a way a cover star!

Duration: 2 hours
Maximum number of students: 10-12

Discover your mojo

It’s all about your mojo – mobile journalism. Your students will discover how they can use their smartphones to make the news and reach global audiences. In this crash-course your students will learn how to:

  • Use their phone as a TV camera
  • Frame their shots professionally
  • Use different shots to tell their story
  • Edit a social media news report with on-screen text

With an emphasis on news production in a real-world context, this session is designed to feed into GCSE, BTEC and A-Level media and humanities courses. Students will come away with a taste of the skills taught on a journalism degree course at Solent. 

Duration: 60-90 minutes

Journalism's hidden code: shorthand

A chance for your students to find out how journalists get their 'killer' quotes from celebrity interviews, politicians and court cases.

Shorthand is the journalist's secret code. It's a series of mad scribbles that only they can read, but it lets them write sentences three times faster than you can!

This fun session teaches the basics of the journalism code. Solve puzzles, decode messages, and get that exclusive story first.

Duration: 2x 50 minute sessions (with a break)

How literature can change your life

Why should we read? What do the characters in historical novels have to teach us as 21st Century students? This session will introduce you to some of the most successful, life-changing actions of characters from historical literature and enable participants to understand how an in-depth study of literature is one of the most useful, practical of all university subjects, which can lead to a variety of exciting – possibly unexpected – careers.

Duration: 2 hours (flexible)
Maximum number of students: 25

Live from the newsroom: studying journalism

Studying journalism at university is about making your way into an exciting career. Journalists are on the scene when news breaks and they experience the best and worst of life. Journalists tell stories, inform their readers and can make the difference that changes people's world's. The session gives students the opportunity to come and experience what it's like to be a journalist; to test themselves in a lively newsroom environment and to find out what it's like to study journalism to realise their potential.

Duration: 90 minutes (minimum)
Maximum number of students: 40

Book an English and journalism taster day


  • Select your taster day
  • Your details
  • Additional information
  • Would you like our staff to deliver a subject talk at your college prior to the taster session?
  • How will you be travelling to Solent?
  • Your taster day may be shared with another college or sixth form. If you do not wish for this to happen, please tick the box. We may be in touch to discuss the date if another college has already requested it.
  • As an external staff member, I have read and abide by the terms and conditions of Solent University's taster day guidelines (www.solent.ac.uk/tasterday-guidelines)
  • If you are unsure about any of the points highlighted in the guidelines, please contact a member of the partnerships team for further information. You can email us directly: partnerships@solent.ac.uk We kindly ask that all staff accompanying their students to one of our on-campus events have read the guidelines.
  • We will keep in touch with you via email and, if you have provided your mobile number, SMS and phone call. We will only contact you with information relevant to your enquiry and general University updates. For more information on how your data is stored, used and shared view our privacy notice (https://www.solent.ac.uk/disclaimer/privacy-policy). If you want to talk to us, before finalising your booking, about how we use your data and let us know how you would prefer to keep in touch, please contact us either via email at ask@solent.ac.uk or phone us 023 8201 3039.
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