PUPILS from Conifers School made the news when they spent a morning touring the head office of the Dorset Echo.

The Year 5 students visited the newspaper as part of a week-long enterprise project involving the whole school, from reception class upwards.

They toured the Echo offices, met department heads and learned how daily newspapers are put together. The students will then take this new knowledge back to school and use it as part of their fundraising initiative.

The Conifers visitors, who included enterprise co-ordinator Katie Charlton and Year 5 teaching assistant Denise O’Rourke, began their tour in the newsroom where they met editor Toby Granville and other members of the editorial team who explained the different aspects of their job, how news stories come together and how the pages of the paper are designed.

The tour continued in the advertising department where ad manager Rob Thomas showed how adverts are sold and designed.

All the children said they found their morning fascinating and had learned a lot from it.

Julia said: “We learned what sort of stories get into a newspaper and how they are written to make them more interesting so more people will read them.”

And her classmate Robert added: “We learned that a story has to be catchy and tell people everything that they want to know. It was interesting to see how the adverts are designed too.”

Conifers’ enterprise project lasted a week. Each class was loaned £25 by headteacher Rachel Hiscocks to get their scheme started. Anything they made was sold at the school summer fair, the profits kept and the initial start-up loan returned to the head’s fund.

Mrs Charlton said: “The idea of the enterprise event is to get the children starting up a business, doing all the relevant research, designing logos and coming up with ideas, and then making a product that can be sold at profit at the summer fair.

“The children have been making items from recycled glassware such as coffee jars, which they have decorated with paint. They have also grown their own plants, made garden lanterns and ornaments, plant pots, tealight holders and other things. It has been a valuable experience for them all.”