A regional daily is giving the next generation of journalists a chance to shine after launching a new monthly supplement which is written by school children across the county.

The Citizen in Gloucester has started the new 12-page edition which will cover everything from sport to debates on current affairs and fasion.

Citizen news editor Charlotte Lewis championed the project dealing directly with schools and pupils to commission the copy each month.

The Young Citizen pull-out has received positive feedback from parents and the number of contributors is growing with copy being received from primary school children as well as older pupils.

The new supplement has proved popular with parents and children

For the first edition, the pupils had an interview with Education Secretary Michael Gove and in one of the later supplements, they raised awareness of the typhoon in the Philippines.

Citizen editor Jenny Eastwood said: “We often hear about newspapers struggling to attract the younger audience and also the desire to be using content direct from readers, well the Young Citizen is an example of how both can be achieved by attracting younger readers who are contributing themselves to the paper.

“We are really pleased with it and we thank the sponsors such as EDF Energy who have made the supplement possible. We hope the format can only grow in 2014 with even more schools on board.”