The write stuff

THE future of journalism in Huntingdonshire is in safe hands, with hundreds of young budding reporters scrutinising the patch for stories. In April, The Hunts Post launched a competition challenging primary school pupils to design a newspaper front page

THE future of journalism in Huntingdonshire is in safe hands, with hundreds of young budding reporters scrutinising the patch for stories.

In April, The Hunts Post launched a competition challenging primary school pupils to design a newspaper front page.

And the contest, launched as part of National Newspaper Week, has seen the editor's desk filled with hundreds of entries.

The imagination of the young reporters has seen the creation of front pages telling tales of trips to Scarborough, a broken Nintendo (complete with a promise from the author to stop pestering his mum for a new one), saved swimming pools and concerns about graffiti, healthy food and the environment - all the ingredients of a decent local newspaper.

The Hunts Post editor Andy Veale said: "The competition caught the imagination of so many of the children at our primary schools. It has been tremendously hard to choose a winner.

"Many of the front pages showed a real flare for reporting, for getting at issues that affect children and their school, and for showing our children have a great sense of fun.

"I would like to thank all the children and teachers who took the time and trouble to take part in the competition.

"It's clear that The Hunts Post now has some real competition in Huntingdonshire."

Class 4 at Great Paxton Primary School reported on its mock wedding, while Year 6 at Bushmead Primary School packed lots of stories on to the front of their Eaton Socon edition.

Pupils at Thorndown Infant and Junior School, in St Ives, featured their work to design new screens for a park, while Connor, Sam, Jordan, James and Ben packed in the stories for their front page.

There was a dramatic life-saving story from Class 4AT at Godmanchester Community School, while Holly Stocker, of Westfield Junior School, St Ives, reported on the class trip to Scarborough.

But the winning entry came from St John's C of E Primary School, Huntingdon, and it will be professionally made into a newspaper page by the subbing and design team at The Hunts Post.

It was created by the reporting team of Carina, Kenya, Rebecca and Genesis.

Mr Veale said: "I was impressed with this front page as it was well thought out, had a topical main story concerning efforts to go green, and had a back page as well.

"The girls had even designed colourful, eye-catching advertisements and tasters and had interviewed members of the school's football team.