LAST week we welcomed 15 year-old Jack Bishop, a student at Dene Magna School, into our office for work experience.

Jack, who lives in Cinderford, sought out the opportunity himself as he has a keen interest in sports journalism.

During the week, he was tasked with editing copy about the nominees and winners of The Forest of Dean and Wye Valley Review’s first ever Community Hero Awards, as well as writing several sports and events articles.

Jack, a Manchester United fan, says he thought about pursuing sports journalism because of his interest in football.

“I had thought about being a lawyer, but then I went into police cadets and I didn’t really enjoy it”, he explained.

“So I thought of other things - I like football, I enjoy watching on TV and I thought, maybe I can bring what I see to the page.”

Jack’s best subjects at school are P.E and Maths, and he also enjoys History.

He says that after school he’d like to go on to complete his A Levels at Dene Magna Sixth Form.

Jack was a delight to have around the office and a credit to himself and his family, and on behalf of everyone here, we’d be happy to welcome him back anytime to gain more experience.

On his last day, we asked Jack to write an account of his experiences throughout the week. Read on to find out how he got on in his own words:

I started my week at The Forest Review full of excitement as I didn’t really know what to expect.

As I walked through the front door I was greeted by Heather and the team, they immediately settled any nerves I had.

Before starting, I was a little bit concerned there wouldn’t be much for me to do and I would be left doing the boring job: making teas and coffees.

However it was the complete opposite, on Monday I was immediately thrown in to help with the Community Heroes award evening and even made my first article, which was published to the Forest Review website and later put into the Ross Gazette.

The first day was great and made me look forward to the week ahead.

I started Tuesday by adding to my article about A Girl on a Bike and her second trip to Qatar. I enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere during the day as it has a big contrast to the fixed timings of the school day.

Getting to finish a story and fix lunch/break around your day is great.

After lunch I was able to write about Gloucestershire raising awareness about alcohol and attempted to write a story after only given a very small amount of information.

I was put in different scenarios and loved the challenge.

Wednesday was amazing! It was the day of the Community Hero awards and it was great.

The Community Hero awards celebrated so many great people’s achievements and was a pleasure to be a part of.

The awards ran smoothly and every winner fully deserved their award.

I got to experience the creation of the live feed but most importantly enjoyed the great evening celebrating some amazing, local people.

On Thursday I got to write a review of the Community Hero awards as well as an article on my favourite sport- football.

My story about football was my favourite and I also feel it was the best.

I can’t wait to write more football stories in the future.

I ended the week writing my account of the week, looking back at all the interesting stories I’ve been tasked to write.

Throughout the week I’ve been kept busy with fun tasks and I couldn’t thank the team enough for the brilliant week they have provided for me.

They’ve made me even more excited to continue my career in sports journalism.