A daily newspaper produced a special edition for schoolchildren as part of its campaign to improve young people’s literacy and critical thinking.

The Irish News has produced the one-off edition as part of the Young Newsreaders campaign.

The initiative will bring up to eight weeks of activities that offer a different way to challenge the knowledge and understanding of young readers.

The programme, which has been run by the Belfast-base News for the past three years in association with St Mary’s University College, has already helped thousands of children improve their literacy through exploring newspapers in an interactive way.

News marketing manager John Brolly said: “The Irish News is delighted to be publishing our first school edition for use in our award-winning Young News Readers project.

“It is a significant investment in the literacy of our young people but with over 4,000 children already signed up it offers schools a great opportunity to engage with a unique learning through the news in the classroom initiative.

“Our special school edition offers students a range of content from food, travel, business as well as local and international news.”