This year, twenty-five students from years 10 through to 13, attended an Award Ceremony at Quadrant House on Thursday June 29, to celebrate the end of the 2017 Young Reporter scheme. 

The project which runs for eight months every year from September through to April, rewards the top students with prizes and a day at university to experience life as an undergraduate journalist student.

Students arrived at 6.00pm, excited and curious to know what they had won.  There were five categories up for grabs including breaking news, events and interviews and some excellent stories covered by our winners.

Freya McMurray from Tolworth Girls' School and Imogen Duke from Bromley High School, scooped the top two prizes.  They said that it was an enriching and rewarding experience and a great opportunity to improve their journalistic writing skills.

Lawrence Potter who runs the scheme at Bromley High School, said: "I am delighted by our pupils' success in the Young Reporter competition. It has been a pleasure to watch their journalistic style improve and mature over the course of the year. I look forward to reading their work in the future."

Every year, in addition to the five categories, we award prizes for those students who have overcome difficult circumstances but still managed to finish the scheme.  This year Naomi Ogunkola from Newstead Wood School in Orpington and Jasmine Helm-Stovell from Rosebery in Epsom were awarded these prizes.

Two additional awards went to Lillie Rodger who won the NHS Award which is a two week work experience in Epsom and St. Helier Hospital and Jack Antoniou who won the most read article.

Running now for nine years, this extra-curricular scheme allows students to work alongside Newsquest’s own journalists, publishing articles every month on our online newspapers.

Rob Young from Bancroft’s School in Woodford, said: “The Young Reporters scheme provides useful experience for any student thinking about a career in journalism, I can attest that the scheme promotes proactivity, independence and common sense – three attributes much sought after in the modern age.”

Open to students throughout the Greater London area, this scheme is an invaluable asset for students to include on their CVs as every article is published and they can build up a portfolio of their work for the future.

Today more and more universities expect extra experiences in addition to good grades and this scheme provides work experience on a completely different level.

Jo Bishop from City and Islington Sixth Form College who had two winners this year, said: “The students who excelled on this programme were the ones who were prepared to go the extra mile demonstrating excellent research skills, organisational skills and ability to meet tight deadlines. These are all essential transferable skills which students will need for university or employment.” 

The scheme starts up again in September and students wishing to take to part or are interested in knowing more about it should contact djarvis@london.newsquest.co.uk