JOURNALISM students at a Winchester school have been very busy, taking a trip to St Mary’s Stadium and interviewing a former pupil who who now plays rugby for England.

The Henry Beaufort School BBC News School Report Team visited Southampton Football Club where they interviewed the paralympic footballer Martin Sinclair. Martin has 50 caps for England’s Cerebral Palsy team and has now appeared at two Paralympic Games.

The team also interviewed England under-21s and Harlequin’s centre Joe Marchant.

Joe, who has recently made his 50th appearance for Harlequins, spent a day at the Harestock school - and was interviewed by students as part of the BBC scheme before taking part in question and answer sessions, followed by an after school rugby training session with other students.

Students asked Joe, also a former member of the city athletics club, what is it about rugby that makes it his passion to which he replied: “To be able to go out and do what I love every day. It is an amazing feeling”.

Teacher, Miss Bean said: “This was a wonderful experience for the students to not only visit the St. Mary’s Stadium but to also enable then to have the opportunity to research about and then interview Martin Sinclair. It’s great that this project allows the students to make and tell their stories.”

She added: “It was such a pleasure having Joe spend time with us. He is a real inspiration for our students especially those who want to make it in to professional sport. We are all very proud of what Joe has achieved and wish him continued success within his rugby career.”

The BBC News School Report Team is a national scheme which sees students from secondary schools across the country develop their journalistic skills to become school reporters. The various groups then get together in March for an annual News Day, creating video, audio and text-based news reports, and publishing them on a school website, linked to by the BBC.