YOUNGSTERS at a Felixstowe school used a variety of new skills as they spent a day putting together their own newspaper.The year seven students at Deben High were taking part in the national Newsday competition, in which youngsters up and down the country are challenged to create their own publication from scratch, focussing on their school, the community and world events.

YOUNGSTERS at a Felixstowe school used a variety of new skills as they spent a day putting together their own newspaper.

The year seven students at Deben High were taking part in the national Newsday competition, in which youngsters up and down the country are challenged to create their own publication from scratch, focussing on their school, the community and world events.

Andrew Salter, deputy head at Deben in Garrison Lane, said pupils from the gifted and talented programme at the school - which helps stretch the top students by providing them with extra challenges - took part in the day, helped by some sixth formers.

“To produce the whole publication on the day is a completely new experience and quite a challenge,” he said.

“There was quite specific criteria for how much of the different types of news can be included in each section.”

The students were allowed to do some preparation work before the competition day, but had to take photographs, write articles, lay out the pages with most of the work being done on the computer. They also had permission to use some photos from national newspaper websites.

The youngsters enjoyed the tasks, especially the working to deadlines and the researching the different stories their newspaper featured.

Gifted and talented students from the school recently took part in the magistrates' court challenge - in which youngsters took over the roles of everyone involved in a court hearing, including bench, clerk, press, lawyers and defendant - and also the Make Your Mark enterprise challenge, a Dragon's Den like event in which they had to come up with an invention and a business plan for it.

“These sort of events stretch the students and give them an opportunity to develop a range of skills and their confidence in situations where they take the initiative and are running the event,” said Mr Salter.

“It really makes them think and equips them to work together and helps with the rest of their learning, too.”

Is your school involved in a special activity or event? Contact the Newsdesk on 01473 324788.

Do special events help prepare students for the world of work? Write to: Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk