A SIZZLING summer of fun-filled activities was laid on for more than 500 youngsters by their local council.

From psychology to cookery and art to the internet, dozens of off-beat subjects were on the menu, not forgetting the ever-popular football and cricket.

The huge response to Blackburn with Darwen's two-week Summer Slam event, offering over 60 free learning events for 12 to 18-year-olds this month gave a team of young "roving reporters" on one of the courses, under the tuition of journalist Stan Parke, plenty to write about.

And a visit to our newspaper head office, bringing along their own reports to include in the NIE column this week, rounded off their taste of the world of journalism.

The following snapshots of some of the events are from the budding reporters . . . Put to the sword TWENTY-FIVE swashbuckling teenagers were on guard for a fencing course, one of the most popular activities in the Summer Slam.

Their instructor, David Burghley, captain of the inter-regional Winston Cup team, told us that he hopes his students develop self confidence, better reflex control and the ability to deal with others.

"The sport isn't just fun, it can be as dangerous as it looks in films, so students have to learn very strict guidelines and any Zorro wannabes are just not welcome."

- Lindsay Reynolds and Kathryn Cording, both 14 They're on the air 54321 - you're on air! A 30-minute radio show in the style of their favourite station was the aim of students learning about scriptwriting, scheduling, recording and broadcasting.

Course tutor Mrs Hunter wanted to show students that learning can be fun and to give an experience of vocational skills that they wouldn't be able to try in school.

- Shabana Ahmed and Rozina Akhtar, both 13 Anwar's screen play STUDENT Anwar Khan was delighted with his first web page designed on the Summer Slam course, on the subject of his favourite car, the Ferrari.

The style of his page was very impressive, with many different fonts, shapes and colours. However, Anwar told us that you need patience with web sites because they can take a long time to come up on screen.

The 14-year-old said that he has a computer at home and wanted to learn more about it, and as his ambition is to design computer games and programs, he thought the course would be particularly useful.

- Yasar Matin, 14 Oven ready STUDENTS had fun with food, experimenting with recipes such as apricot puffs and peach scones. Kim Wright, 14, said that she was thoroughly enjoying the course after her mum encouraged her to take it. Sean Thompson and Florence Butcher were also having a great time with their favourite hobby.

Now imagine the scene - three teenagers having an innocent game of football when one trips over and falls on a human corpse. Gruesome yes . . . but don't panic, its only students on a media expression course making their own version of the film "I Know What You Did Last Summer," and guaranteed to be scarier than "Scream."

Kathleen Robinson, 15, has always wanted to be involved in the media and this course gives her the chance to act out her ambitions. All other students agreed that the event was great fun."

- Kathryn Cording and Lindsay Reynolds

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.