A group of schoolchildren have seen their very own newspaper printed at the presses of the Evening Leader, after winning a competition run by the newspaper.

The Year Six pupils from St Mary's School in Flint wrote and designed an entire eight-page newspaper themselves, and scooped a computer, printer and £1,000 for their school as a reward.

A thousand copies of the full-colour tabloid newspaper were also printed, watched by the children, in the culmination of a competition launched to mark Local Newspaper Week.

The Evening Leader, which has three editions covering Wrexham, Flintshire and Chester, was inundated with entries from primary schools after asking them to submit ideas for a school newspaper which would involve all the classes, groups, clubs and sporting activities.

But it was St Mary's that impressed the judges - head of content Joanne Shone and promotions assistant Laura Dutton - the most.

Joanne said: "St Mary's even had a great idea for their front page splash with a serious report on The Truth About SATS from the pupils' point of view and a side taster on Scoobie Strings - the latest school craze which has overshadowed swap cards in the playground popularity stakes.

"Inside there were a huge variety of reports and articles from a retiring school cook and vox pops on school dinners to match reports, memories of school trips and outings and a page of jokes and puzzles."

After an in-depth page by page meeting between Joanne, Laura and teacher Lucy Parry, an editor, news editor, sports editor and support teams were chosen to produce the finished copy.

The Evening Leader sent a photographer to help the children take pictures for the newspaper and when the pages were ready for proofing it was the children who passed them, making any last minute changes.

Joanne said: "It was a marvellous exercise on all levels. We showed the Evening Leader as an even more integral part of the community, the children had a great time and learned a lot and it was a novel way to mark Local Newspaper Week.

"When I asked St Mary's editor, 11-year-old Chelsea Curtis, whether she would like to edit a real newspaper one day she said 'No-way it's too much hard work!' - sensible girl."

The children check out their newspaper