PUPILS at Westleigh High School battled to meet a deadline . . . and earned themselves a trip to Westminster.

The nine 14-year-olds in Year Nine at the Leigh school, together with their teacher Darrell Wright, entered a national competition to produce a newspaper.

The contest, run by the Times Educational Supplement, gave the pupils just one day to produce a paper featuring national and local stories.

The pupils brought out the 10-page Westleigh Exclusive with a range of articles including drugs in prison, the Xanadu development, Princess Diana and gorillas in Africa. Pictures and poetry completed the work, which the pupils produced on the school's computers.

Judges were so impressed with their efforts that they placed the Exclusive among the top 10 entries and have invited Mr Wright and two pupils to the Palace of Westminster for a presentation next month.

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