GONE are the days when the long summer holiday meant bored youngsters wondering what to do with themselves and frantic parents trying to provide entertainment.

Summer activity schemes are now offered to young people by local councils and education committees, run by teachers and tutors in schools and colleges throughout the district.

Two of the courses on offer at Blackburn with Darwen's Summer Slam activities linked up with our Newspapers in Education project, both making visits to our head office. And students on the Roving Reporters course gave us the lowdown on some of the scheme's fun opportunities enjoyed by hundreds of other youngsters.

"A group of young dancers have been moving to the beat, for a performance representing our town and the young people in it." reports 15-year-old Kathryn Cording. "The Our Town Story, a dance and drama piece about Blackburn with Darwen, will have its first performance at Darwen's Library Theatre, and then at the Millennium Dome on October 2." Mary Mulvey, aged twelve, wrote that "A group of wannabe Michael Jordans dribbled their way through Summer Slam at St. Mary's College. The all-boy slam dunkers said that the course had been really enjoyable and worthwhile and many would like to consider playing professionally in the future".

Samantha O'Neill, 14, reported: "Up to seventy activities were on offer throughout the summer, and certificates were presented at a party organised to round off the fun and frolics".

Meanwhile, reports were coming in of a horrific murder, the first in the town for twenty years, from young "investigative journalists" on another summer activity course. The facts of this real event from 1912 had been unearthed by the news team taking part in the Summer Slam Murder Mystery course, at Blackburn College.

The group, led by tutor Joanne Caddy, made use of our Newspapers in Education Local History resource, along with a daily delivery of our newspaper for the week, giving information on local events of the past, plus ideas on how to write and design modern news pages.

The facts of the murder, involving a young Blackburn weaver and her boyfriend, were gleaned from the town's library and museum and reported in group's own newspapers, brought along when the students visited our head office to see how up-to-date news is really reported.