PUPILS at Brecon High School have put together their own newspaper which will be sold to raise money for charity.

The Brecon Beacon, which will donate all of its proceeds to the Brecon Mountain Rescue Team, is the work of 27 year eight pupils.

English teacher Jenny Bentley has guided the editorial team through the process of building the paper.

The group split into editors, feature writers, reviewers, sports, graphic designers, advertising and there is even a China Correspondent.

Editor Oliver Neye, 12, from Brecon, said: “It’s fun, you edit the stories and then make them look like how you want them to look in the paper. I haven’t really found it stressful – I had all the stories on time and we’ve had quite a long deadline.”

The budding news team learnt about newspaper production at the start of the process, including about the different roles in a newsroom and pricing the paper.

Miss Bentley said the editorial staff were able to work independently, including researching their chosen topics, taking photographs and advertising their product.

The staff chose the name of the paper themselves and designed their own logo. They chose the mountain rescue team as their charity because of its links to the area.

Head of features Rhodri Tuner, 13, an aspiring young writer from Brecon, said: “I’ve enjoyed it, my favourite part has probably been helping the others with story ideas and seeing what they’ve written. I’ve been able to see my ideas grow into big articles.

“I’m not sure what I want to do after school yet, but I might go into newspapers. I like writing and English is my favourite subject.”

Articles in the school paper, which will be 20 pages, include a sports page, a feature on the school play Sweeney Todd, a feature on saving the coral reef and events of local interest.

There were also reviewers in the Brecon Beacon looking at items such as the new school and the school canteen. Geneva Ratty, 12, from Sennybridge said: “I’ve really enjoyed it, it’s been a great opportunity to do something different. It’s been interesting to find out different techniques of writing and how to edit and things like that.

“I did a story with Natasha Adams in which we interviewed the canteen staff. I enjoy writing, but I want to study architecture after school so I can work in the Lego store.”

The paper even has advertisements. Jack Prytherch, 12, and David Heath, 12, who are both from Brecon, said that the advertisements are to get more pupils to after-school clubs and for the ‘560’ sports events in the leisure centre.

The Brecon Beacon will be sold at the reception in Brecon High School from Monday costing 50p for children and £1 for adults.

Jenny said: “I am extremely proud of all of the pupils involved in this project. Although it has been hard work, they have been very professional and unfailingly good-humoured and creative throughout. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with them.

“The Brecon Beacon is detailed, informative, and entertaining. They’ve done a great job and I see all of these pupils going on to great things, so watch out for them in the future.”