IT'S always pleasing when youngsters take the trouble to write to our NIE column, and particularly so when they tell us how much they have enjoyed taking part in our project.

St James' CE Primary School in Clitheroe recently held a very lively industry day for all pupils in the school and invited our NIE Co-ordinator, Rita Shaw and photographer Jack Barry, to help their team of young journalists to gather both the words and pictures reporting the event for their own school newspaper.

Members of the young news team were so thrilled with their new "careers" that they wrote to tell us how they felt and to thank us for our help.

"Thank you for coming to our school and teaching us about reporting," writes eight-year-old Aimee Williamson. "I didn't know that reporters had to sort of write the story backwards with the most important things at the beginning. It was a fantastic day." Umar Ishaq's letter says that he had a brilliant day and enjoyed everything, particularly using a camera and taking pictures. "I felt a bit cheeky at first, asking the visitors lots of questions," writes Simon Cowgill, aged 10, "but I got used to it and enjoyed the day very much."

"Thank you for making the reporting such fun. I just enjoyed being given the chance to take part and I'd love to do it again next year," says Joshua Pamphlett, a year four pupil.

Well done to the Clitheroe kids; we look forward to reading their finished newspaper. Our NIE co-ordinator is happy to take part in or to run in-school educational events and also to offer tours of our head office and printing plant to any school making use of our NIE resources during the year; please contact Rita Shaw for details of our project.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.