Students had a taste of a daily newsroom when they took part in a national Times Educational Supplement (TES) Newsday competition.

Up to 35 gifted and talented year eight and nine pupils at Alec Hunter school worked on creating their own paper throughout the day, writing stories, laying it out and printing it before sending it off to be judged in time for the school bell.

The youngsters have been preparing for the competition for the last month, learning about journalism from teachers and people in the industry, before knuckling down under guidance from teacher Linda Whittaker.

The paper produced on the day will be judged, along with Newsday papers from schools around the country, by TES, with a prize promised for the most outstanding publication.

Year nine pupil Rosemary Lemon, 13, from Marks Farm, said: "It was very interesting, and it was good to learn new journalistic skills. Making our own newspaper was really exciting."

Assistant head teacher Hamish Birley said that many of the students involved already work on the school's newspapers, the Herald, the Humanities Update, and the East Braintree Focus.

Mr Birley said: "Some of the individual pages look fantastic. Because of our media facilities we were able to make it look like the national. It looks wonderful."