Pupils from schools across Newham were turned into budding journalists for the day as part of the BBC school report project.

Newham Recorder: Eastlea Community School pupils prepare their school report (Picture: Ben Moss/Eastlea Community School)Eastlea Community School pupils prepare their school report (Picture: Ben Moss/Eastlea Community School) (Image: Ben Moss/Eastlea Community School)

Youngsters across the country were involved in yesterday’s annual news day event, with nine schools in Newham taking part.

Among them was Eastlea Community School in Pretoria Road, Canning Town, where pupils wrote, directed and filmed a report on World Book Day and fundraising for a cancer hospital in Bangladesh.

Media coordinator Ben Moss said: “We have been taking part in the news day for a few years but this is the first year the pupils have taken on all the roles themselves.

“Rather than focusing on one topic, we discussed a variety in our report. It’s great to see some students that are more interested in the behind-the-scenes of everything.

“The entire day went really well. All the students displayed a high lever of professionalism and it was a great opportunity to for them to gain a greater knowledge about the outside world.”

Pupils from all the schools involved were expected to gather their own stories through newspapers and social media.

Lister Community School in St Mary’s Road, Plaistow focused on radio journalism after a previous visit to BBC Radio 4, reporting on a school visit by West Ham MP Lyn Brown.

Head of media studies Ian McNicol said: “We thought it would be something different to focus on radio to show the pupils it can be more about the words than the visual.”

Newham Recorder: The St Angela's Ursuline school report team (Picture: Jerrica Bangura)The St Angela's Ursuline school report team (Picture: Jerrica Bangura) (Image: Jerrica Bangura)

St Angela’s Ursuline School in St George’s Road, Forest Gate focused their report around various world events, such as Safer Internet Day and International Women’s Day.

The video report was spearheaded by computer science teacher Jerrica Bangura, and certainly made an impact on the pupils.

Year 8 pupil Myka said: “I am going to put this on my CV as I want to be a journalist. It is like work experience!

Miss Bangura added: “What better experience than your interviews being on the BBC’s website or Twitter page?”

The news day was updated live on the BBC news website, and ended with a BBC radio theatre special on mental health in young people.