They love their stories at South Lodge Primary School in Invergordon, where a group of youngsters have been hard at work taking part in the Press and Journal Junior Journalist competition.
It’s a project which has inspired more than 3,000 pupils throughout the north east and Highlands, and encouraged them to get to grips with the news and all aspects of a newspaper.
Every Monday, head teacher, David Hayes-Macleod joins class teacher, Miss Katharine Waters to spend time taking all 19 primary five pupils, aged nine or 10, through the initiative, helping them to create their own front pages.
Mr Hayes-Macleod, said: “The pupils have been coming up with some weird and wonderful ideas for their front pages, but they are also taking it very seriously and thinking about current affairs.
“I spend about an hour with them each week going through all six editions of the paper they are provided with and the time just flies by.
“They have really enjoyed reading the papers, looking at the different editions and discussing which one appeals to them most and why.”
Mr Hayes-Macleod said the kids relished discussing which stories they would use as their leads and were considering putting a story about terrorism on their competition entry front page after reading about the recent events in London in the P&J.
The pupils have also been encouraged to focus on all different aspects of the paper, from headlines to photographs and story lengths to editing.
It’s the first time the primary school, which has a role of around 142 pupils, has taken part in the Junior Journalist competition.
“It is certainly something I’d recommend as it gets pupils thinking topically,” said Mr Hayes-Macleod who appeared in the P&J last year when his arrival at the Invergordon school was the dawn of a new era.
Born and brought up in the community, he was a pupil at South Lodge and, prior to joining the school almost a year ago, had spent seven years working in London.
It was only by chance he spotted an advert for two teachers at a school in Strathconon.
As he said: “I was stunned to see the advert for head teacher at South Lodge. I’m a great believer in fate and decided to apply there and then.
“My first-year anniversary will be in a few weeks time and it has just flown by – I’ve loved every minute of being back at the school.”
Meanwhile, pupils have a few more weeks to design their own front pages, and get them submitted.
Every participating pupil will receive a certificate of achievement when the project comes to a close, and there is prize money of £3,000 to be shared out.
