STUDENTS were put under the spotlight as a team of roving reporters joined a national day of news gathering.
Young journalists from Trinity Academy, in Thorne, discovered what it was like on both sides of the camera when they were filmed interviewing fellow students with a story to tell.
The academy was one of hundreds of schools taking part in BBC School Report, a national initiative to encourage young people to report on news in their local community.
A BBC television crew spent the day with the students, coaching them in how to put a story together and filming techniques.
Jessica Elsey and Isabel Warren, both 12, interviewed Louis Jones, a Year 11 student who plays with Doncaster Rovers academy and next season joins the U18 apprenticeship programme, and Thomas Graves, who plays rugby for South Yorkshire.
Isabel said: "I never thought we'd get the chance to do anything like this. We both present School News on Trinity Academy TV so we've got some experience, but this has been really exciting."
Back in the 'newsroom' - media teacher Sara Backhouse's classroom - student Sophie Christie worked on her pre-recorded package covering Tesco's decision to withdraw its plans to open in Thorne.
"I interviewed the leader of the town council Ron Powell, which was quite nerve wracking but I think it was a good interview and I got both sides of the story," said Sophie.
Academy principal David Page was given a grilling by students Mitchell Jackson, 11, Luke Hagyard, 12, and Cara Dolby, 13.
"My story was about stress around exams. It was a one-off opportunity to ask Mr Page things we wouldn't normally get to ask him," said Cara.
BBC journalists Mark Ansell and Heidi Tomlinson, and cameraman editor Alistair Candelin were on hand to help the students and record a round-up of their news gathering to be broadcast on the local news programme.
Mark said: "The students had some really good ideas for stories, some that they'd worked on over a few weeks and others that they did live on the day. Then they had the challenge of meeting the deadline to upload them to the School Report website by 2pm on news day."
Mrs Backhouse added: "It's been a fantastic experience for the students, who have had an excellent insight into news gathering and learned a lot from our mentors from the BBC."
