ALL writers remember the first time they helped to make a newspaper – for me it was my bedroom-produced tabloid, Ariane’s Page, when I was aged six covering mainly my brother’s (not so) subtle raids on the kitchen cupboards and the antics of my cats Jasper and Daisy.

For most people, whether you loved it or loathed it, it was the school newspaper – usually produced for one hour after school or during a lunch break.

A group of 27 year eight Brecon High School pupils have produced the school’s first and only newspaper, The Brecon Beacon, which went on sale on Monday, January 22 to raise money for Brecon Mountain Rescue.

The newspaper’s formation followed lessons from Jenny, who has helped to guide the young journalists, on different writing styles within the media.

Leading the newspaper is the calm editor-in-chief, 12-year-old Oliver Neye, from Brecon, who assured me that he hadn’t found his experience stressful – not even as the paper approached the print deadline.

On Oliver’s team of editors are Brecon based 12-year-old Freya Mugridge and 13-year-old Hannah Marshall, along with Llanddew based 12-year-old Eva Deveney-Billinge who has also enjoyed taking some of the photos for the paper.

Oliver surprised me as he spoke about one of the most important features in newsrooms across the country - tea.

When asked about the tea consumption in the school newsroom, also known as the IT room, he said: “We haven’t been drinking tea – we’re also not allowed tea around the computers in case it spills on them”.

I could feel the confusion bouncing off the walls of my brain – I’m certain I’ve drank enough tea to flood an Olympic swimming pool in the seven months I’ve worked for the Brecon & Radnor Express.

My first lesson, or so I put it at the time,

to the 12 and 13 year olds behind The Brecon Beacon was that newspapers are quite often powered by the delicious nectar from one of the gods – PG Tips, Tetley or Earl Grey.

The paper includes quizzes, word searches, comic strips and even ‘Teacher Top Trumps’, making it lighthearted while also giving an insight into what the pupils at Brecon High School think about.

Editor Hannah, who is originally from Colchester, wrote an article on saving the coral reef after watching Blue Plant as well as designing the “Teacher Top Trumps” with Eva.

She said: “I love the freedom that comes with doing the paper and writing. I don’t know what I’ll do when I’m older yet, I might go into newspapers but my favourite subject is PE.”

The features section of the 40-page-long newspaper is led by the head of features Rhodri Turner, 13, from Brecon.

Rhodri’s team of feature writers includes 12-year-olds Natasha Adams, Lowri Phillips, Connor Schueler, and Georgia Pagett-Davies and 13-year-olds Keira Lawrence, Tristan Dillon and Matthew Mileson, all from Brecon.

Also on the features team are Llanfaes-based 12-year-olds Zach Gerrish and Luis Price; 12-year-old Cerys Beckett from Llandew; 12-year-old Shauna Evans from Cantref; 12-year-old Chloe Edwards from Llyel, and, 12-year-olds Gwenllian Kenchington and Geneva Ratty from Sennybridge.

Young farmer Chloe Edwards, who enjoys English and PE, told me she was very happy to be a part of the paper and that she likes writing.

She said: “I’ve written the front page article on Remembrance Sunday and I’ve also been editing articles that other people have written. I’ve really enjoyed it.”

One of the more unique roles featured in the newspaper is the Chinese correspondent which belongs to Hellen Liang, 12, who lives in Beijing in China.

I was truly grabbed by Hellen’s report ‘A School Day in China’ comparing school in China to Wales, and I could heavily relate to her line: “but I always get up late and end up in a hurry.”

The sports team is led by Rhys Jones, 12, from Sennybridge and includes the two 13-year-old sports reporters Lewis Crockett and Oliver Pitt who are both from Brecon.

Rhys Jones, who is originally from Winchester, said: “It’s been a really good experience.

“I’ve never been involved in this sort of things before. I’ve been able to work with two other reporters and discuss ideas around sports which are suitable for the newspaper.

“I’ve done an article on rugby being allowed in school because of the sorts of injuries you can get from it like concussions. I may consider going into newspapers in the future, I do enjoy writing but I don’t really know what I want to do yet.”

The Beacon is particularly impressive as the logo and its comics were developed by the students – a huge step up from my school paper which used badly drawn pictures from Paint and stolen internet adverts.

Thirteen-year-olds Ryan Williams and Ioan Zimmer, both from Brecon, were the main graphic designers while features writers Georgia Pagett-Davies and Connor Schueler helped with aspects of the graphic designing like posters and photoshop.

Aspiring historian Connor, who moved to Brecon from Colorado in America two and a half years ago, said: “I’ve done a mix of reviewing and feature writing and I’ve also worked a lot with the photos.

“My favourite part has been photoshopping the photos – I’ve found doing that very fun. I also wrote an article on Severn Wye Energy and that meant I got to interview Mark Stead and it went really well.”

Connor definitely had the best newspaper pun with his headline ‘Why SevernWye?’ – if he decides to wander away from a career in history, he could be a sub editor or columnist in the making.

In charge of advertising are Brecon-based 12-year-olds David Heath and Jack Prytherch who gathered adverts from around the school including from after-school clubs, lunch-time clubs and the Brecon leisure centre’s 5X60 programme. The two boys said that they hoped the adverts would encourage more pupils to attend school and leisure centre clubs.

The Brecon Beacon is on sale in Brecon High School reception and in the reception of the Brecon & Radnor Express costing 50p for children and £1 for adults, all to go towards the Brecon Mountain Rescue Team.

Jenny said: “The Brecon Beacon is detailed, informative, and entertaining. They’ve done a great job and I see all of these pupils going on to great things, so watch out for them in the future.”