November's practice News Day January's practice News Day February's practice News Day

The theme of the day was international news and students reported on topics including links with schools overseas, street children and tsunami victims in India, the treatment of women in Iran and Iraq, extreme weather in the Caribbean and Africa, and pollution in Beijing.

This page provides a summary of news-making activities in schools throughout the day and links to dedicated news pages on some school websites. More links will be will be added to the clickable map.

When School Reporters at Caedmon School in North Yorkshire asked Francis Muncaster to talk about his charity work in south India, he insisted on driving 60 miles from Bedale to Whitby.

His interview forms part of the students' video and text report on their website about the school's 12-year commitment to support a class of pupils in the village of Mettupalayam, through his charity.

An editorial focus meeting about images of women in the media

Rainham School for Girls in Gillingham, Kent have published their School Reports on their website. Their news topics include:

• Poverty around the world including a video interview with a former student who works with rescued street children in India
• Global warming
• Obesity and anorexia

Ayan, 12, completes his news script. Photo taken by mentor Scott, 14

Ayan, 12, from Coombeshead College in Newton Abbot, Devon has chosen to investigate Christmas for the homeless.

Having researched his subject, he is preparing to ask the vice principal and principal of the school for their views.

The School Reporter is also writing a radio script about climate change. He said: "It's important to tell people about how to save electricity."

Ayan and another nine Year 8 pupils are being mentored by a handful of Year 9 and 10 students.

Tom, 13, who took part in last year's School Report, is helping pupils edit their scripts in order to fit a three-minute radio bulletin.

He said: "You have to think of your audience and what they will find interesting. This means choosing the subject carefully, and cutting out all the uninteresting information."

Scott, 14, who is chief photographer for the school newspaper, is training students to take top-quality pictures.

He said: "It's about not shaking the camera, getting as close to the subject as possible, getting some good action shots, such as students while they are recording in the radio studio, and taking as many pictures as possible so you can chose the best."

Earlier, Riza and Rumena, both 12, decided who would cover each story

School Reporters at Central Foundation Girls' School in Bow, London concluded their TV news bulletin by wishing everyone a happy Eid and a merry Christmas. As well as gathering the facts, students collected the opinions of pupils and teachers on the following subjects:

• The treatment of women Iraq
• Clothing rules for women in Iran
• Green-house gases
• People's preference for cost or comfort on aeroplanes
• The northern lights

School Reporters Kelsey, Kyle, Laura, Ashleigh and Scott from Doon Academy in East Ayrshire showed European visitors a slide-show about Scotland.

The presentation and a report about the visit from members of Bridges4Europe, which promotes learning across communities in Scotland, Romania, Italy, Turkey and Bulgaria, is on the school website.

Hillhead High School in Glasgow met their publishing deadline and uploaded a range of reports to their school website. Their news topics include:

• The opening of a new shopping centre in Glasgow
• A man trapped in a toilet in Aberdeen
• The school's international link with a school in Kenya
• Death caused by a tropical storm in the Caribbean
• The age of Saturn's rings
• Pollution in Beijing and its possible effect on the Olympics
• A news species of dinosaur discovered in Africa
• The danger of waves on Zanzibar's beaches
• The possibility of skateboarding being included in the 2012 Olympics
• A shooting in Glasgow where there were no injuries
• The death of a fox in Orkney
• Manchester United's 1-1 draw against Roma
• Liverpool's 4-0 victory over Marseille
• Arsenal's 2-1 defeat of Steaua

To access this page use the link above, click on Departments, then English and finally BBC News School Report.

Loren and Eleanor, both 13, from Manchester Academy wanted to know why house prices differed in their areas and how long it took to pay back a mortgage, so they put these questions to an estate agent during a regular property slot on BBC Radio Manchester.

Students quiz estate agent on air

Having done an hour's research, they felt "excited but nervous" as they went into the studio.

Loren said: "It made me realise that you can't get a house by crossing your fingers, you have to put time and money into it. Before today, I didn't know anything about mortgages and I think we should learn about this kind of thing at school through fun activities."

BBC journalist Margaret Burgin, who accompanied the students, said: "Journalism involves doing research and devising questions on subjects you don't know much about, so the students developed some good skills today."

Anchormen Frank and Darren present the news

The most frustrating part of the practice News Day for weather presenter Harry, 12, from Desborough School in Maidenhead, Berkshire was the number of takes it took to film his piece-to-camera.

"I'd get one word wrong, and have to stop and start again, and then I'd start laughing. Presenting looks really easy but in fact it's really hard."

Students used a pre-scheduled rugby match between the school's first team and former pupils as a chance to find out what the school used to be like. They also reported environmental issues and sports news.

Teacher Dawn Hughes said: "Although there was a lot of work involved, today has been absolutely brilliant. I'm going to ask the head if we can arrange another practice News Day."

She added: "We haven't had time to edit our video footage but the written reports with images are technically easier to complete and upload to the school website. It's definitely worth doing some text-based reports as well as video or audio."

School Reporters didn't let people's reluctance to be interviewed hamper their report about children's behaviour on the local buses.

Although Year 7 students from Stoke High School stopped a number of people near the bus station in Ipswich, only a handful people were prepared to be interviewed.

Determined to carry on, their dedication paid off when a woman who happened to be conducting a government survey on public transport stopped to give a "really good" interview.

Students also interviewed pupils who travel to school on the bus and senior members of staff at the school.

Having met their 1230 GMT deadline to record all their footage, students watched it back on a large projector in the classroom.

Teacher Karen Killeen said: "The subject was their idea and the fact that they took ownership of the piece really came across.

"They took our BBC mentor's advice and stuck to asking each person the same few questions. They could see that this gave them a good cross section of opinions."

Students are looking forward to showing the raw footage to their mentor on Monday before editing it for their school website.

Ms Killeen said: "The students were really impressed with what they had achieved and the practice News Day went really, really well."

Students are most interested in football news and a dinosaur find

When Gary, 11, from Hillhead High School, Glasgow learned that he was taking part in the practice News Day, he was dedicated enough to take notes while watching his team Rangers crash out of the Champions League with a home 0-3 defeat to Lyon.

Even though he was "really disappointed", he took down the times and details of free kicks and goals.

"The trick is to take down the main things, otherwise you end up with too many notes," he said.

Three S1 students in his class have taken on the role of editors, helping School Reporters decide which information to include in the opening sentences of their text-based reports.

Rosa, 11, from Hillhead High School, Glasgow chose to report the news that Gordon Brown was not at the official signing of the EU treaty, citing a prior engagement in the British parliament.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband was at the signing and the UK Prime Minister will sign the treaty separately, later on Thursday.

Rosa, whose parents are both politicians, said: "Having grown up around politics, I find it interesting. To be a political reporter you have to be fair and know all the facts so you don't jump to conclusions."

The other 17 School Reporters in S1 are creating articles for their school website, reporting school-based, local, national, international and sports news, and weather.

A student researches the news which will be filmed later in the day

The treatment of women in Iraq before and after the fall of Saddam Hussein and a crackdown on un-Islamic dress in Iran are two of the stories being reported by students at Central Foundation Girls' School in Bow, London.

Year 8 School Reporters scanned the day's national and international news before choosing to focus on these issues and other topics including leg room on public transport and green-house gases.

Having written their scripts, students are in the process of filming their presentations using computers with in-built cameras and microphones.

Riza, 13, said: "This is my favourite part because if you make a mistake you have to film it again and again. It makes you practice until you get it right."

Teacher Charles Dunnicliffe added: "Asking students to record their piece in one take is a lot easier and quicker than fiddling about with it in an edit."

Sophie, 12, sang Abba's SOS to raise money for students in India

Each year students at Caedmon School in Whitby, North Yorkshire imitate celebrity singers during a school "Stars in Their Eyes" event and send �600 of the ticket money to a school in south India which was affected by the Asian tsunami.

Nine School Reporters chose to cover this story during the practice News Day which has an international theme.

Marcus, 13, said: "I enjoyed finding out about the school in India and how the students live. I was quite sad to learn that some children with a disability are not treated very well and don't get an education. The charity we raise money for helps them by giving them wheel-chairs.

On Wednesday students interviewed Francis Muncaster from the charity Friends of Mettupalayam - the name of the village in the area of Tamil Nadu in South India where the school is located.

School Reporter Sophie, 12, was also interviewed about her performance of Abba's SOS during the show.

Pupils are now busily editing the video footage in order to publish it on the school website before 1600 GMT.

Presenter Josh said: "I've been watching myself back on the computer. It's a good way to work out how to improve your presenting skills. It definitely helps if there is no-one in the room to distract you."

Students are also writing text-based news to accompany the video.

The class have been assigned roles as reporters and editors

Students at Hillhead High School, Glasgow have been divided up into editorial teams.

Each group is covering international, national or sports news.

Most of the class have been allocated the role of reporters and are working on individual stories. Some students have been assigned a supervisory role as editors.

Teacher Lisa McKerley said: "It's all going well. Technically it's quite difficult but I think it will all come together."

Meghan, from Year 11, is working with Year 7 School Reporters

School Reporters Rainham School for Girls in Kent are busy composing questions to put to a former pupil about her voluntary work with street children in India. Gemma Selves, 27, who has recently returned from Goa, is visiting the school at lunch time.

Other students are researching news stories concerning festivals and traditions, which is a current Year 7 curriculum focus.

Britney and Emily, 11, interview Lindsay Hobbs about Hanukkah

One group is planning to interview two members of staff from Australia and another from South Africa about school and home life in other countries.

They are being helped by a Year 11 student, who has already taken her GCSE English exams.

Emily, 11, talks to the BBC about her report on anorexia

Emily, 11, from Rainham School for Girls in Kent is working with a group of Year 7 students on a report about anorexia.

She said: "We've looked in magazines for some information and found photographs on the BBC News website - the ones with the credits on - and now we're going to ask teachers and students what they think about it.

She added: "It's a big problem for people our age - both girls and boys. People think they're fat and then they stop eating.

Three Year 7 forms from the school are writing text-based reports which they plan to publish on the school website this afternoon.

Will Torrent sent this photo of himself to School Reporters

Two School Reporters from Desborough School in Maidenhead, Berkshire have interviewed 21-year-old chef Will Torrent, who is representing his country at the WorldSkills 2007 competition in Japan.

The contest involves 22 people, who are under 23, from the UK, competing against young people from 47 other countries in 40 different vocational skills.

After spending 40 minutes on the phone to Will, they are writing up the interview for the school website.

Other students, who have turned the school library into a news room, are finding stories and gathering information for their TV news bulletin.

One School Reporter at Desborough School in Maidenhead, Berkshire is scouring geographical websites for information about volcanic activity in Mount St Helens, following a tip-off from his Geography teacher.

Nick, 13, said: "I'm double checking but it would be pretty cool if there was something there, and I was the person to break the story."

Later on, the Year 9 student will be filming Year 8s students as they present their TV news bulletin.

Nick is one of five older students assisting the class of 26 Year 8s. He said: "As I'm a bit older I have seen more news than the younger students and I can also help them with computer work."

School Reporters from Stoke High School are on their way to the bus station in Ipswich to investigate concerns about some children's behaviour on the local buses.

Gaby, 13, said: "We heard that there have been some complains about children throwing food on the bus. I think some people are over-reacting but that others have a serious point. We're going to interview drivers and passengers to discover the truth."

The idea was suggested by Ian, another of the nine Year 8 students taking part in School Report.

A proposal to introduce "next-of-kin cards" was one of the stories covered by 11 Year 9 geography students from Oakgrove School in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire during their practice News Day on Tuesday 11 December.

I like working under pressure and I enjoy writing, in fact this is what I want to do - become a journalist Julia, Oakgrove School

Script-writer and editor Julia said: "I wrote a piece about a local woman who had thought of a scheme after her father had a fatal heart attack.

"Because he wasn't carrying any identification the emergency services couldn't identify him or his next of kin.

"Her idea was that everyone carried cards so this could be prevented in the future."

She added: "As editor of our school magazine, I was used to writing page-long pieces.

"I found it quite challenging to shorten my original script again and again until it was about 30 seconds long."