When we were told that our Work Experience was coming up I didn't really think much of it, but as it came nearer and nearer and my friends were talking about more and more I thought to myself what I do actually want to do in the future.

I have a real interest in sport and I know now that my childhood dream of becoming a professional footballer is a bit out of reach so I decided to think about something in or around sport.

Teaching sport came to me quickly as I have already done my Junior Sports Leadership Award so maybe I could teach PE for two weeks.

Primary schools would probably be the only option but I thought that small children for two weeks would be a bit much.

I then remembered about how I always think that the reporters and correspondents on Sky Sports News are always wrong and how I could do a better job. So maybe a job in journalism could be for me?

My Dad suggested the Free Press or the Guardian so I wrote the sports editor an e-mail and he said it would be OK for me to join his colleague Andy Clucas for a week as that was the week he was on holiday.

I was like "Great, I have got myself a placement at somewhere that I would enjoy instead of stacking shelves or something".

June 30 was to be my start date and it soon came around.

DAY 1

When I woke up, I was already in a good mood because I knew there was no school for me and I could finally put on my new shirt and tie!

The day didn't start to well as the offices weren't even open when I got there.

I wanted to be a bit early – first impressions and all that!

When I eventually got inside I met Andy and he took me up the stairs, having to duck numerous times on the way.

We went into the office and there were the editors and reporters and my desk with my own computer on it. I was pleasantly surprised.

Andy then took me round and introduced me to all the people I was likely to come into contact with.

I was then given my first task of reviewing the sports sections of all the papers that Andy deals with as he had to do all his finishing off because the paper was out the next day.

After lunch I really started. I was set two tasks to write my own article about a football presentation and getting all the winners of the trophies off the manager and another one on a nine-year-old footballer.

I didn't really know where to start but after Andy showed me other small articles, I soon got into it. I then wrote up some press releases from an athletics tournament and the day was literally over.

I just had time to start my work experience diary that my school had given me to fill out.

I had to do self-assessment where I had to rate myself from one to five on all different things, such as if I am able to get to places on time or if I am able to organise myself. I finished at 5pm.

I went home that evening very tired but proud and wondering what was next for me tomorrow.


DAY 2

I woke up Tuesday morning, put on a new shirt and tie, of course, and got to work at 9am.

Today the door was open, which was good. I sat down and got cracking with some angling reports and some cycling reports that Andy wanted me to write up and to send to him.

I then just looked over my questions that I was going to ask to Joe, the nine-year-old footballer, and just before lunch I started on the "Remember When...?" section of the Free Press. This is the section in the sports pages where past papers from years ago are looked at and the headlines are written up in a little part of the paper.

The place where you found all the old papers was this small room with nothing in it.

It was really weird because I was in there on my own with thousands of papers and I had to find little bits from the same date.

I thought it would have been harder than it was, because they were all split up into years and months so it wasn't too difficult.

Andy showed me where all the old papers were and I started to try and find papers from 50 years ago!

I found out how Pinchbeck Cricket Club were "Team of the Month" ten years ago. After this finished I did a report on the table tennis.

Next I was given an e-mail from a guy named Cliff and I had to ask a couple of questions about his girls' cricket team and write a small article on it.

I rang him and got all the results and a couple of quotes from him and formed my article around that.

I attempted to phone Joe again but once again he wasn't in. I don't think I am ever going to get to speak to him.

I finished at about 4.50pm and that was the 2nd day over and done with.


DAY 3

This morning Andy told me that Tim the photographer was doing a couple of sports photos so I went out with him to a couple of places in and around Spalding.

We went back to my school, Spalding Grammar, as it is activities week and got a couple of photos of all the activities on there.

We also went to a couple of places for photos for the Business Awards that the paper does.

We went to places like Swinsehead and Holbeach. We took photos of a "Bike Safety" scheme that one of the local Holbeach schools was doing.

That took us until 12.30pm when I started to write this up and then in about half an hour I am going to go on my lunch break.

It rained through nearly the whole of my lunch hour so I came back from town a bit wet and then landed the job of having to put "received" on every bowls, darts and pool score sheet!

I then thought of some more questions for me to ask the young golfer who I was going to interview when he came back from school.

This took me until about 3pm and then Andy gave me the good news that I could go home early because I am doing another couple of interviews at about7.30pm, which is when I'm not meant to be working.

Even though I was still enjoying myself it was still nice to be told that I could go early! Another plus was that I m going home early the day after as well!

After that I was given a little booklet on a Football in the Community programme that was being done by Peterborough United and was told to crack on with that.

It turned into a small article which was to go into the Bourne Local on Friday. This took me until about 4pm when I was able to go home.

That night I went to table tennis and I did a couple of interviews to try and get some more players playing the sport and then Tim came down to get a few photos of me and some of the other players.

Now all I had to do was look forward to my first article being in a paper the next day and writing the big article on table tennis that I have been working on every day since I have been here.


DAY 4

I came in on the morning with all my notes from the previous night and so I got to work on writing the article up.

I was greeted with pictures of myself playing table tennis! Some of the weren't the best. There were some of the other players in the league that were much worse than my picture though!

After I had finished my article I was given another one to do on Bourne Rugby Club and their new league they are in and a Hog Roast that the club are having. That took me until around 11am when I started to write this again and top it all up.

I then read the Guardian, which I was most looking forward to because my first article would be in there.

I immediately turned to the sports pages and found my article! Obviously I read it again and again and again. I had the biggest grin on my face as I was reading through it.

Tomorrow the Bourne Local comes out where I should have another article in there, I don't know if it will have the big "By James Barton" that it did have on the one in the Guardian, hopefully it does though.

Andy didn't have much else for me to do as he was working on the back page and needed to get it sorted by the end of the day.

Then he got a sheet from the bowls club, about some tournaments so I wrote those out and sent them to him. This took me to about noon.

Next I had to proofread one of the sports pages to make sure all the spelling and grammar was correct. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but it still had to be done. I then went on my lunch break for an hour.

When I got back Andy didn't have much for me to do so he found Kate, one of the news editors, and she gave me a few news releases from the county council to write up into articles.

One was on a transportation service for old people, one was on a pet service and the other was on a gym and swim offer. These had to be written up and sent to Kate. These took me to just before 3pm.

I ended up leaving at around 3.30pm as I had to referee a football tournament at 4pm.


DAY 5

My last day going to "work." I came in just before 9am and found two reports on my desk, so I wrote these up.

One was on Spalding Ladies' Golf Club and the other was on a 19-year-old swimmer who has dreams of getting to the London 2012 Olympics.

These didn't take too long to write up and it took me until just before 9.30am.

Next I filled in more of my work experience diary that I had to do and told Andy that he had to fill in the biggest section.

I had to fill in all sorts about things like trade unions and equal policies in the company.

It wasn't the most interesting thing I have ever done in my life. Then I started to write this up again and I will probably leave this until about4.30pm where I can complete it all.

Then Andy told me that I would be going over with another Andy (a sub-editor) to work on the page that my article will be going on.

We put four chosen photos on the page and added my story and we just had a little space down the righthandside, so we put the tennis stories in there.

Then Andy asked me to write in the captions and even the headline.

It was really interesting to see how the actual paper gets made and how its is all formed together.

The article will most likely be in the Lincolnshire Free Press next Tuesday (July 8). This took me until around noon.

Then Andy gave me a little advert to do about Young Dons under-11s wanting some new players to form an 11-a-side team. I wrote it up and sent it to him. I finished this just before lunch so I went for my lunch hour.

When I got back Andy told me that Friday afternoons were the quietest times of the week so both of us wouldn't be doing too much. That was the end of my work experience at the Lincolnshire Free Press, Spalding Guardian and Bourne Local.

Overall this experience has been great for me, and I have loved every minute of it.

I don't think that next week's placement will be able to top the first hand experience of being a journalist.

If any one is thinking about a career in journalism then this is the place for you.

All the employees have been great and I have been able to get along with everyone that I have met and I have enjoyed my whole time here.