A ferocious beachside battle between two terrifying dragons became the subject of an important news story for pupils at a Maidstone school.

The Year 5 pupils at Brunswick House Primary School in Leafy Lane, Maidstone, were given a lesson in reporting skills by group features writer Angela Cole, as part of their project work for English when she visited the school.

They had been set the task by teachers Heather Zigler and Hannah Morrell of writing a news story about a pivotal scene in the book, How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell, which they had been reading in class.

They were taught about all aspects of journalism, including how to write a news story and about headlines, picture captions and newspaper layouts in the interactive lesson.

Working in groups, they considered the vocabulary used in news reports, as well as where they might find the facts for their story and how to put them into their piece.

As their task included writing about the battle as though they were reporting from the scene, they also took part in role play, with pupils acting as reporters at the scene; videoing the action; making an audio recording and interviewing a Viking "witness". They were also treated to watching the interview taken down in shorthand notes.

All pupils then submitted their own individual news reports to Angela, who singled out a number of examples of good journalism for particular praise, choosing Mia from Hever Class's piece as the overall winner in Year 5.

She said of the pupils' work: "They all did so well with their headlines, picture captions, quotes and descriptions in their pieces - some of the descriptions were brilliant, and the intros were especially good. And writing an intro can be hard!"

She added: "Although I found it very, very hard to pick a winner, I chose Mia's because she had a good headline, quote, age of interviewee, and the best intro, which for me summed up the story with facts, time and colour."

Mia's intro said: This afternoon on Long Beach two vast sea dragons fought eachother to the death, while terrified Vikings watched in horror.

Year 5 class teacher, Heather Zigler, said: "It was brilliant to give the pupils a real life context to their learning and motivate their writing. They worked incredibly hard and were so proud of their news reports. Well done Hever class!"