BUDDING reporters on a high school newspaper are hoping to scoop a national award.

Youngsters who produce Westhoughton High School's monthly newspaper The Informer are submitting a special 40 page edition of the publication to the Times Educational Supplement competition News Day.

The colour paper is packed with a variety of stories covering local, school and international issues and even features an article on BBC television presenter Gordon Burns, who was interviewed by the teenagers about his career in journalism.

Headteacher Brendan Loughran said: "I think they have done a very professional job. They are all going to make it as journalists if that's what they choose to do. They've worked extremely hard on the paper and I am very impressed with the final product."

Two Year 10 pupils, Michael Wilkinson, aged 14, and Chay Brooks, aged 15, co-edit the paper. Chay is in charge of content and Michael oversees the graphics.

Since they started the school newspaper three years ago it has grown to have a 15 strong staff that includes a features editor, entertainments editor and a chief reporter. Now, about 300 copies of The Informer are distributed each month.

The publication normally focuses on school news, although they are hoping to broaden the content so that it becomes a community paper.

The news team is hoping to distribute the newspaper around the local area in places like the town hall and the library, and is also hoping to find advertisers.

The Informer regularly features interviews with members of staff in the school and a highlight was when they interviewed headteacher Mr Loughran when he joined the school in September. The team is also starting to contact local people such as councillors for interviews.

Michael, who would like to be a journalist, said: "It just gets more fun every time we do the paper. We keep on learning more exciting things about the school.

"I think it has given us more courage and confidence about talking to people around the school."

A website has also been set up featuring stories from the paper. Since March last year the home page has had 13,000 hits.

Much time and effort is required of the youngsters to create The Informer. The teenagers do not have specialist computer software so have to use MicroSoft word to create the pages of their newspapers, which involves painstakingly pasting pieces of A4 together.

This is the first time that the newspaper has been entered for an award, although it has already been honoured by the school, as it has received an award from a former headteacher and his wife, the Ken and Jean Vann Innovation Award.