Do you want to confidently teach Media & Information Literacy across the Curriculum?
Ready-to-use resources launching this September!
Watch this short video from Helen, our Education Lead, about what MIL is, why it’s so important and how First News can help!
Be the first to benefit from our teacher-tested MIL resources. Register now!
Media and Information Literacy is the ability to access, understand, evaluate, and create information across a variety of formats – from traditional forms, such as books and newspapers, to social platforms and beyond.
It’s about understanding where information comes from, how it’s distributed, and why that matters.
For children, this means (for example):
- Learning how to tell fact from opinion
- Spotting bias, misinformation, disinformation and manipulation
- Understanding how and why various strands of media are produced
- Developing critical thinking and digital resilience
- Becoming active, informed participants in society
The skills children develop through great MIL education will be relevant right across the curriculum, and at home as well as at school.
In a world where anyone can publish anything, our children are growing up in an environment where information is fast, fragmented… and not always trustworthy. Teaching MIL isn’t a ‘nice-to-have’ – it’s essential.
According to a recent survey conducted by First News, 83% of teachers say MIL is important or very important; 61% say MIL is not currently taught at their school; and only 5% would feel very confident teaching it. Whilst we are conscious of the demands already placed on schools to deliver a broad, knowledge-rich curriculum, as well as preparing young people to thrive in life beyond the classroom, we strongly believe that media and information literacy (MIL) should be a mandatory educational entitlement for every child – with the same status and attention paid to it as is given to reading, writing and oracy.
Great MIL teaching:
- Supports critical thinking and confidence across the curriculum
- Protects children from being misled or manipulated
- Encourages curiosity and independence
- Builds resilience against online harms like conspiracy theories or hate speech
- Promotes empathy and understanding through access to diverse perspectives
- Prepares children for democratic engagement and informed citizenship
As the UK’s leading children’s newspaper, First News is uniquely placed to lead the national conversation around teaching Media and Information Literacy (MIL) to children. With nearly two decades’ experience of delivering age-appropriate, impartial news to young people – alongside a weekly suite of high-quality, news-based classroom resources – we are trusted by families and schools alike. This confidence in our work is a privilege, and it comes with responsibility, which we take very seriously indeed. That’s why we are now championing the particular critical skills every child needs to thrive in today’s information-saturated world.
A coalition of information and education organisations, including First News, has issued an urgent call for media and information literacy (MIL) to become a mandatory part of England’s school curriculum, warning that young people are being left unprepared for an increasingly complex digital world. Read the joint statement, coordinated by the Media and Information Literacy Alliance (MILA) here.
