The Link magazine, SwindonLink's paper sister, is in crisis! Overwhelmed by stories and successful with advertising, it does not have enough hours in the day to produce Swindon's most closely read publication.

However a solution is at hand. Peatmoor community primary school has launched a 'Leadership for the Future' project where eight children have been selected to take on a series of challenges over the next year with help from education consultants Learning Works.

Their first task is to create a two page newsletter aimed at children to be published in the July Link magazine Working with teacher Brough, the pupils are honing their research and writing skills, discovering how to become slaves to a deadline and even become publishing moguls. Stephen Welsh and Mark Arnell from Motorola GSM Products Division at Blagrove have been recruited as project mentors.

Link publisher Roger Ogle has attended classroom sessions to talk about what makes a good story and how to take interesting photographs. Whilst the pages will be laid out at the Link office from e-mails sent by the youngsters, but they will be responsible for proof reading and approving the pages before publication. Their work will also appear here at www.swindonlink.com in July.

Peatmoor School headteacher Terri Peacock sees the Leadership for the Future as an inclusive project which will have a positive effect on the whole school. "We are exploring different styles of learning and opening up opportunities to learn more in different ways. The children will become role models. They will be involved in further challenges later in the year and they will act as role models to demonstrate and help other children to acquire the skills they have picked up, for example in using the library or the internet for research."

The project is supported by Swindon Borough Council and staff from Motorola GSM and Cellular Operations will be helping as mentors. However funding is needed to develop the scheme. For more information, call Mrs Peacock on 01793 887473.