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When schools join up, they're a powerful force, and pupils from Ely Community College and Witchford Village College proved that point on Thursday 26th March - 大象传媒 News School Report Day.

Pupils fiming an interview

One day a year, we give students the chance to find out what the news really is and how it's prepared for a news bulletin for TV, radio or online.

It's tough to pack all of that into just the one day, so we sent along our own 'powerful force' of Sue Dougan, who presents the afternoon and gardening shows here on 大象传媒 Radio Cambridgeshire, ably assisted by Pam Mungroo, who's the driving force behind numerous 大象传媒 campaigns and projects.

Sue Dougan is the pupils' mentor

As their mentor, it was Sue Dougan's task - together with teachers from both colleges - to help the pupils hone their reporting and presentation skills over the course of the morning, before letting them loose on live radio for today's Afternoon Show.

News Day is all about finding out what 'makes the news'. It's not just about reading a script into a microphone, and Sue and the pupils spent a lot of time discussing what's topical, what's not; what works for radio and television and what doesn't.

Listening back to an interview

Writing scripts, filming, learning interview skills, and turning an idea into a well-researched and beautifully presented feature for radio were just some of the new skills the pupils mastered, and by the time the Afternoon Show went to air at 12.30pm, the nerves were beginning to jangle. Only 30 minutes until the mics at Ely Community College went live. Would they be ready?

While Sue and Pam help to put the finishing touches to the pupils' audio features, our deputy editor is having his own 'School Report Day', taking over the helm of the show from our studio here in Cambridge so that Sue and the pupils can broadcast live from Ely.

Sue Dougan interviews pupils for radio

Our intrepid School Reporters took part in all of the regular features on Sue's show including Paper Cuts - talking about topical news stories in the regional and national newspapers, and guesting in Sue's 'Chatroom' - discussing a range of topics, giving their views and, if necessary, arguing their points. Today, that included asking whether they should be allowed to listen to MP3 players during lessons such as art, or during personal research time and, are you ever too young to think about your future careers?

At 2.30pm, the pupils presented a full bulletin - live on air - which you can listen to here:

Later in the afternoon, we played a 'package' the pupils had put together. They had thought carefully about their subject matter and had opted for an investigative feature on the state of their schools' toilets. And you've guessed it, that involved access to the hallowed ground of the staff toilets so that they could make a fair comparison. Do the staff enjoy luxurious facilities? Do the kids still have to use the equivalent of tracing paper instead of that nice soft stuff advertised by the little puppy on TV?

You'll have to listen in to this hard-hitting report for the answers to those questions and many more, brought to you today by some very fine reporters from the county's colleges. Well done to them all!