WINSFORD pupils became news hounds for the day when one of Sky News’ top correspondents called in.

North of England correspondent, Tom Parmenter, visited Woodford Lodge High School to run an interactive workshop looking at the skills needed to be a television journalist.

The children worked with Tom in teams to write their own news stories and record them with a video camera as part of the new Year Seven skills-based curriculum.

Tom, whose first ever work placement was with the Northwich Guardian when he was 15, said he was impressed with the children’s confidence in front of the camera.

"They showed great enthusiasm for the challenge we laid down for them – it's not easy to read the news to camera but they were unfazed and came up with some imaginative twists on the stories we gave them,” he said.

"They all worked together in teams to hit their deadlines – skills which are vital in my job and of course many others, and the thing that impressed me most was their willingness to get stuck into the task.

“There could even be a few future reporters among the young people at Woodford Lodge."

One of the aims of new curriculum at Woodford Lodge is to give the children the skills they need to do well both at school and in all other areas of their lives.

Assistant headteacher Dan Thomas said: “It was great for Tom to give up his time to come and work with our students. It is vital to get professionals from all industries into schools so that the children can see the relevance of what they do in the classroom to their futures.

“Seeing the engagement of the pupils with Tom was great, they learnt a huge amount from him and could see why the teamwork and communication skills they have been working on are so important outside of school.”