Hundreds of school pupils have gained a taste of life in a busy newsroom thanks to a project run by a university’s journalism department.

The University of Lincoln set up its school newspaper project last year and since then more than 20 primary and secondary schools have taken part.

Under the scheme, a team of journalists and undergraduates visit a school to help them make a 16-page tabloid newspaper in one day.

And the pupils get to see their work in print, with more than 30,000 copies of the different papers being printed by Mortons of Horncastle, which is supporting the initiative.

Lecturer Tim Greenfield, who is leading the project, said: “We love going to schools and working with the pupils – they always amaze us with their enthusiasm and dedication to getting the best out of the news day.

“We hope to expand in 2011 and visit some new schools, hopefully inspiring some more youngsters about journalism and newspapers.”

During the news days, pupils research, interview, write and edit their own stories and then help design the news pages, deciding which articles should go on which pages.