Pupils met with a Guardian reporter to get tips on making their own school newspapers.

Selected year six students from Aldersbrook Primary, Highlands Primary and Wanstead Church School are writing one-off publications for their fellow classmates to help inform them about life in secondary school.

The project is being organised by staff at Wanstead High School as part of attempts to allay fears among young children about the transition to 'big school'.

More than 30 pupils came to the school today to speak with Wanstead and Woodford Guardian reporter Daniel Binns to learn about journalism and the newspaper industry, before going on to start making their own papers.

Wanstead High English teacher Matt Cooley said it was not uncommon for primary pupils to believe wild rumours about secondary schools, including claims that teachers sleep upside down in their classrooms and pupils get detention for being ill.

He added: "We hope that by making a newspaper these children will be able to communicate to their friends about what life in secondary school is like and to really de-mystify the whole experience."

The Guardian's Daniel Binns said: "It was good to meet with the kids and to see their enthusiasm, despite some of them obviously being a bit nervous about the looming prospect of going to big school.

"While most people now seem to get their news from places like TV and the internet, I hope this will at least make the children think a bit differently about newspapers like ours in future".